Tomboy Trouble
by CoolKid94
Summary: When Conan invites Sera out for a friendly chat, a couple of students see Sera, but not him, and spread rumors that Sera's seeing someone. Meanwhile, Ran is starting to have doubts about Shinichi. Will trying to squash the rumors only further strengthen their relationship and drive Ran and Shinichi apart?
1. Sera Acting Oddly

OK, so here's my first new story in...two years. Yeah, I've been gone that long. So all my old readers are probably all gone now and you all have never heard of me, huh? Well, I spent the time working on a novel, so I've been getting a lot of practice with writing. Just compare this story to some of my older stuff on this site, why don't you? ;)

This is normally where I put story explanations, but since it's a block of text this time, I put it at the bottom. Check it out if you have the time!

Disclaimer: Do you really think I'd be putting this on a fanfiction website if I owned it? Good grief. :P

* * *

Chapter One

Masumi Sera was a secretive person, and for good reason. After all, she was investigating her brother's murder and she didn't need the people who'd gotten to him getting to her friends through her. She valued Ran Mouri and Sonoko Suzuki as close friends and didn't really want any ill will to fall on them. Of course both Sera and Ran were both fully able to take care of themselves through their respective martial arts, but that didn't stop her from worrying.

And then, of course, there was the boy that always tagged along with them. Conan Edogawa was, of course, not actually a little boy, but she couldn't exactly tell him she knew that. That would make her friendship with Ran _very_ awkward. Besides, Ran was kind of cute in a tomboyish way.

"Sera-chan! Sera-chan!" someone said loudly, breaking her out of her thoughts. It was Ran, trying to get her attention. Sera's thoughts had drifted off when Ran and Sonoko had started chatting among themselves. She'd been thinking about some personal problems she'd been having, which she didn't really want to discuss.

"Oh, sorry Ran-chan. I guess I just got distracted. What did you need?"

"We wanted to know if you wanted to go to a cake buffet!" Sonoko said loudly. "I was just telling Ran about one at the department store over there. Do you want to go, Sera-chan?"

That was a question that Sera didn't really know the answer to. She wasn't really feeling particularly hungry, but then again, if Ran and Sonoko wanted to go, who was she to say no? "Sure, I'll go!" she replied happily.

When they got inside, they saw that the line for the buffet was absurdly long. "Oh come on!" Sonoko wailed. "Cake makes you fat you know! Why are there so many fat people in the line?"

"Now, now," Ran said gently. "It's not that many people."

Sera glanced down and noticed that Conan, who had been quiet the entire time, was looking at Ran and Sonoko with a deadpan wtf expression. "What's wrong, Conan-kun?" she asked sweetly, making him start in surprise. "You know, this reminds me of the first time I met you guys. You were going to a cake buffet then, too!"

"Uh, yeah, I guess so," said Conan.

"But you know," Sera continued, "I wonder what Shinichi-kun would think of all this. Seeing Ran-chan in line for a cake buffet like this when she never responded to his confession might make him think 'What if she didn't take it the right way? What if she's pouting?' Do you think he'd think that?"

"Definitely not!" Ran exclaimed loudly. "Shinichi would know better than that…"

"Right, right!" Sonoko agreed. "Your beloved husband would never think badly of you, Ran!"

"It's not like that, Sonoko!" Ran said, blushing. Sonoko just giggled.

"And that's how you take someone's mind off of complaining," Sera whispered to Conan cheekily, who looked rather embarrassed. Well, that wasn't exactly surprising considering what she'd just talked about.

XXX

Later that day, Conan was still following the girls, bored out of his mind. He would've gone with his friends if he'd known what Sonoko had planned for the afternoon. First had been the cake buffet. Sera had turned that into a test of patience when she'd starting teasing Ran. Now they were on their way to an arcade.

"Japanese arcades are so much better than the ones in the States!" Sera said happily. "They've got all sorts of exclusives and you don't have to hunt for them here!"

'Just like Jodie-sensei,' Conan thought sarcastically.

"Are they really that different?" Sonoko asked curiously.

"Yeah," Ran responded. "When I went to America with Shinichi, we went to an arcade at a mall, and it was nothing compared to any arcade in Tokyo."

"Oh, he invited his wife on a date?" Sonoko teased.

Ran suddenly got defensive. "It wasn't a date!" she insisted, her face flushing. At this point, they had reached the arcade. Almost instantly, Conan spotted four kids near the Kamen Yaiba pinball machine.

"Come on, come _on_!" Genta yelled, letting go of the stick and sending the ball up into the machine. As the ball bounced around, he got ready with the flippers to send it back up.

"Oh, it's Conan-kun!" Ayumi announced, spotting them. She and Mitsuhiko waved at them while Genta, distracted, lost his ball.

Conan then had to pick the lesser of two evils. He could go with the kids, where he'd have fun but still have to listen to them chatter. Or he could go with Ran, and have to deal with Sera's teasing.

However, his mind was made up for him. "Oh, go on, tantei-san," Sera said cheekily, nudging him forward. "If you stay with us, you're going to make your girlfriend jealous!" She said this while winking again, which meant she was deliberately trying to get a rise out of him.

'What's been up with her lately?' Conan thought to himself. Sure, Sera was bright and cheerful, but she'd been a little too much of prankster than afternoon. Ran and Sonoko didn't seem to have noticed.

What those two did notice, however, was Sera's use of the word 'girlfriend'. "Oh, the brat's got a girlfriend?" Sonoko teased.

"Who is it? Who is it?" Ran asked, bending down close to Conan. "You can tell me, you know."

"Oh, I think Sera-no-neechan misunderstood," said Conan quickly. He shot a death glare at Sera, who was smirking evilly at him. 'That girl will get hers one of these days,' Conan thought, annoyed.

"Oh, really?" Ran replied, looking lost in thought for a moment. Then she stood back up. "Well, I guess we'll leave you alone, Conan-kun."

Conan kept an eye on them as went towards his friends. "Conan-kun, check this out!" his friends called from where they were playing. Haibara was busy playing at the moment, and from how the other three were looking at her, she was doing a pretty good job.

"You're amazing, Haibara-san!" Mitsuhiko shouted.

"Go, Ai-chan!" Ayumi followed.

"You like pinball, Haibara?" Conan asked.

"Oh, didn't you know, Edogawa-kun? It's good for practicing hand-eye coordination and timing."

'You're an adult, so why do you need to practice?' Conan thought, confused. Suddenly the ball ricocheted off a bumper and flew straight down to the bottom between the flippers, and Haibara was unable to stop it.

"Look, you set the high score, Haibara-san!" Mitsuhiko said happily.

"My turn! My turn!" Ayumi said, running up and taking Haibara's place.

"So? What are you doing here?" Conan asked as Haibara left the other three and joined him.

"Is it a crime to have fun, Kudo-kun?" she asked with a sweet tone, but a deadpan look.

'No, but it's still out of character for you,' Conan thought. Haibara smirked at him.

"So, what's on your mind?" Haibara asked suddenly.

"Oh, it's just Sera," Conan muttered. "She's been acting weird lately. And the way she talks to me, it's like she knows who I am."

"You already investigated her once and got nowhere, so how is this any different?" Haibara asked. "You said she's an ally, so what more do you want to know?"

"Well, she gets distant sometimes, and then she constantly teases everybody, especially Ran and me. She gets worse than Sonoko. You saw her when we came in, didn't you?"

"As you might have forgotten, meitantei-san, I was busy playing that game. What did the tomboy do?"

"She told me to go play with you guys because 'my girlfriend's there', which set Ran and Sonoko off. She went after Ran earlier, too."

"Well then, I guess the problem isn't as easily solved as you think," Haibara said, smirking again.

"Oi, Haibara; do you know something I don't?"

"Maybe," she said, walking away and going back to the kids. But Conan stopped her.

"Just give me a hint, then," he begged.

Haibara sighed. "Fine then, Kudo-kun. Here's your hint: go up and ask her, away from anybody else."

"And how am I supposed to do that? Ran and Sonoko are going to start teasing me if I get anywhere near them for at least another hour."

"Kudo-kun, quit being a coward and go!" she replied, glaring at him. "Be a man and ask her if she'd like to meet up with you tomorrow. Then be nice and childish so she'll lower her guard and tell you, thereby satisfying your curiosity. Is that good enough, tantei-san?"

Conan didn't like being teased, but he had to admit her plan was sound. The problem was, being alone with Sera might not be such a smart move. But if there was something wrong, he figured he'd better try to find out. "Fine, then; I'll go and ask," he said eventually.

* * *

Anyways, a little background on this. I'm intending for this to eventually morph into a ConanXSera love story, but looking at it now, it may not actually reach that point. The reason for this is that I'm keeping the story true to the manga and all of the characters in character. The only exceptions to this are when there's an in-story reason for it. This has always been my policy and it hasn't changed.

As anyone keeping up with the manga can testify to, Conan and Sera currently don't fully trust each other. As of this writing, the identities of the middle brother and the mysterious child have not been revealed yet. Conan has also not told Sera who he is. If I'm going to write a romance between these two characters, it's going to take a while to get anywhere. Therefore, while I haven't planned past the fifth chapter yet, I can easily see this running over fifteen chapters simply because of this mistrust. Plus I'll have to get Ran out of the way, as well as overcoming the obvious age difference. So if you enjoyed this chapter, I hope you're in for the long haul.

Drop a favorite and a review if you like the story, BTW. :)


	2. Talking as Friends

I was surprised by the amount of positive support I got last time, since I figured a story not featuring one of the main pairings would be skipped. This chapter focuses on Conan trying to get Sera to open up, with humorous results.

* * *

Chapter Two

Sera was having a blast at the arcade. She hadn't been kidding about enjoying Japanese arcades earlier. She did feel a bit bad about teasing Conan, though. 'He's probably used to it,' she thought, glancing at Ran and Sonoko, who were busy playing a racing game. 'Still, I really shouldn't be moping, should I? I'm such a fool sometimes.'

"Sera-no-neesan," a young voice called out, jerking her out of her thoughts. There was only one person who called her that.

"Hmm? Did you want something, Conan-kun?" As a detective, she noticed that Conan was acting strangely. It was the way he was unconsciously fidgeting, which is something he rarely did, unlike normal kids.

Conan looked very uncomfortable. "Do you think we could meet up tomorrow sometime after school?" he asked eventually.

'Eh?' Sera thought. Whatever she had expected, it certainly wasn't that. From the way he was acting, she at first thought it was a date request, but she knew that was just wishful thinking. After all, he had Ran, and he didn't know that she knew who he was. Thinking about it wouldn't do anything, so she decided to humor him. "I guess so, Conan-kun. Where did you want to meet?"

"Oh, it doesn't really matter, I guess. What about Beika Park near the big tree? It's supposed to be a nice day tomorrow."

'Beika Park? What's he planning?' Sera thought. But then she mentally shook herself. 'If he was planning something like that, he wouldn't be nervous.' "After school, then? I'll be there, Conan-kun." She smiled at him before going back to her game, but her mind wasn't really on playing it anymore. She kept wondering just why he'd called her out. If he wanted to ask her something in private, he could've done it right there and then. The arcade was loud enough to mask what they were saying, and there hadn't been anybody near them. 'Why am I even thinking about this to begin with?' Sera thought, shaking her head.

XXX

That evening, Sera returned to her motel room still deep in thought over what had happened. Conan's actions were generally pretty easy to follow, since he simply used deductive reasoning to come up with what to do next when he was investigating. She knew full well he was interested in just what she was doing in Japan and the person currently giving her the evil eye for staying out late, but she'd been supplying all of his clues thus far, and she hadn't given him any new ones. Sure, he technically could just ask her for a new one, but that embarrassed look on his face told her it wasn't about that.

"If you're going to stay out late, you really need to call, you know," her roommate said suddenly.

"Sorry, about that," Sera responded, putting on an apologetic face. "It's just something happened earlier that I can't get off my mind."

"That boy again?"

"Is it that obvious?" Sera asked, defeated. She dumped her stuff on the floor and flopped down on one of the beds.

"You're really easy to read you know. That boy probably noticed and wants answers."

'Yeah, I know,' Sera thought. 'But it's not time for him to know yet.'

"I know you trust him, but be careful. We can't risk him interfering in our mission."

Sera decided to change the topic. "So, I'm here now, so how about we get something to eat?"

XXX

The next day, Conan was the first to arrive at the park. The weather prediction had been right for a change, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. 'Let's get this over with,' Conan thought, sitting down. He was curious what was up with Sera, but he was wary about being alone with her with nobody around to run interference if she started prying at his secrets.

"Yo! Conan-kun!" Sera called from a ways away, waving. Conan waved back and soon enough, Sera was next to him, dressed in her usual Teitan High girls uniform. "So, you called me out here. What do you want to talk about?" She down on the ground near him, making sure that no one could see down her skirt.

Conan took a deep breath. "Well, we never really get a chance to just…talk, you know? As friends."

Sera looked taken aback for a moment. "As friends, huh? Well, if you want to talk about something, I'll listen!" She grinned at him again.

"Sera-no-neechan, why are you always so peppy?"

"Well, why wouldn't I be when I'm around my friends? Do you want me to be dull and boring and snark at you all the time?"

'And be a clone of Haibara? No way," Conan thought.

"All right, then, Conan-kun," said Sera, leaning back on her hands and looking at the sky. "Do you actually like either of your two little girlfriends, or are the three of us just reading the situation wrong?"

'Eh?' Conan thought, color rushing to his cheeks. He had to fight to keep it down. 'What brought that on?' he wondered. "Definitely not!" he insisted childishly.

"Oh, so we were wrong, then? That's funny, then. Sonoko-chan said that the way you and that Haibara kid argue all the time reminds her of Kudo-kun and Ran-chan…" She snuck a glance at Conan, who didn't notice.

'That Sonoko…' Conan thought, annoyed. He decided to quickly change the subject. "Sera-no-neechan, did you find what you were looking for?"

Sera was quiet for a moment, as if debating what to say. "Well, I thought I did, but something happened, and then something else happened…" she trailed off, apparently consumed in her thoughts.

'Not again,' Conan thought. "Don't worry, Sera-no-neechan!" he said loudly, breaking her out of her thoughts. "You'll find what you're looking for someday! You're a detective, aren't you? You'll get it one day!"

That did the trick. Sera was instantly bright and cheery again. "Thank you, Conan-kun! You'll help, won't you?"

'Uh, maybe,' Conan thought. He wasn't about to help her find her brother, but if she had some other agenda he didn't know about he might help at some point. "But I'm just a kid," he said childishly. "What can I do?"

"You'll run interference of course!" she exclaimed, grabbing him up and ruffling his hair.

"Oh, if it isn't Conan-kun and Sera-san!" a voice exclaimed. They looked up to see Subaru Okiya on the path nearby, dressed in a jogging suit.

'Of all the people that could've seen us,' Conan thought as he squirmed around to free himself. "Subaru-san!" said Conan out loud, jumping up and straightening his hair a bit, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I thought I'd go out for a jog today. It's a nice day, after all."

"A…jog?" Sera asked, also standing up and brushing dirt off her skirt. "I didn't think you were the jogging type, Subaru-san."

"Well, today's my first time. But never mind that, what are _you_ doing here?"

"What's with the suspicious attitude?" Sera asked, crossing her arms. "Can't a girl talk to her friend without people nosing in?"

"Oh, I'm not nosing," said Subaru. "I just thought it intriguing is all. Although if you really want to get rid of nosy people, there's a few behind those bushes over there that would qualify." He jerked his head at some bushes on the other side of the path a ways away.

Conan was too used to his friends snooping to really care. But Sera had had enough. "What do you mean 'nosy people'?" she asked, getting fired up. She stomped over to where Subaru had indicated and got in a shouting match with whoever it was. They were too far away to hear much of what they were saying, though.

"So, why are you really here?" Conan asked. Subaru just smirked.

"Training, actually. Just because they think I'm dead isn't an excuse to not stay in shape. But you still never answered what's you're doing here."

"Oh, she just looked down in the dumps, so I figured I'd ask and see if there was something I could do."

"As a friend, huh?" said Subaru, putting his hand on his chin. "Well, I wish you luck with that. Just be careful that your kindness doesn't lead to you make any rash decisions." With that, he jogged away.

'What did that mean?' Conan thought, staring after him.

"Oh, Subaru-san left," Sera said, rejoining him. She still looked annoyed. In the distance, Conan saw a couple of Teitan High students running away as fast as they could go. "I was hoping to ask him something." Then she shrugged, "I guess I'll have to try again later."

"Who was spying on us, Sera-san?"

"Oh, just some freshmen from school. I guess they saw us sitting over here and got the wrong idea. But don't worry; I set them straight." Sera did a Jeet Kune Do move to demonstrate this.

'I'd hate to be them,' Conan thought.

* * *

And so a meeting between 'friends' gets interrupted, as per the norm in the Conan-verse. This isn't the last we've seen of the spies, by the way. And Sera's cheeky attitude is going to get them all in trouble.

As a side note, for those reading this in the future, I'm not calling the Mysterious Child by her name because as of this writing it hasn't been officially confirmed. The last arc before this writing was the Scarlet arc, so I'm assuming all the readers are familiar with it and its revelations. Though I doubt Bourbon is going to show up in this story. Sorry about that. ;)


	3. Detectives Ran and Sonoko

It never fails; as soon as I start a new semester of school, I get sick. Basically it was a cold with flu symptoms, just without the wracking headaches, so I didn't really feel up to updating anything. But I'm better now, so here's Ch. 3, with Ch. 4 coming pretty soon.

This is when the repercussions of the 'date' start being felt. And if you're wondering why people were suspicious of a girl meeting with a little boy, well I explain a lot of that here (or mention the ridiculousness of it :P ). Plus there's some new POVs this chapter. (You can tell whose POV it's supposed to be by whose thoughts and internal monologue I talk about.) Hope you enjoy. :)

* * *

Chapter Three

Sera might have chased her classmates off, but they still spread the story. When she walked into school the next day, everybody was gossiping about her. "What's going on?" she asked Sonoko at the shoe lockers.

Sonoko's face broke out in a huge grin. "Some of the freshmen have been going around saying you were on a date at Beika Park yesterday! Who was it with?" She started nudging Sera, still grinning.

"Oh, they didn't say?" Sera asked curiously.

"No, only that it was a younger guy they didn't recognize. You chased them off before they could get a good look."

'Odd,' thought Sera. 'Even at a distance you'd know Conan-kun was a kid. So why did they not see him? Oh well, that's a lucky break for me, I guess; I don't need them thinking I'm into shotacon.' "So you want me to tell you who it is?" Sera asked, grinning.

Sonoko nodded expectantly. Just then, Ran arrived. "Sera-chan, did you really go on a date yesterday?" she asked, grinning as well. "That's great! What's he like?"

There was a crowd around her now. 'This is troublesome,' Sera thought. 'I'll never hear the end of it whether I say yes or no. In that case, then…' "Sorry, but it's a secret!" Sera said cheekily, putting a finger to her mouth in a 'shushing' motion and winking.

"Aww…" the crowd moaned. Most of the crowd started moving away, but Ran and Sonoko stayed with Sera.

"Just a little hint, please," Ran begged. Sonoko nodded enthusiastically again.

Sera looked at their faces and decided to humor them. "All right, just one hint. He's a younger guy that you both know. How's that?"

Ran and Sonoko looked at each other in confusion. As they started to brainstorm, Sera left to go to class, unnoticed.

Later that day, Sera was still being looked at all the time. She'd kind of liked the attention at first, but now it was starting to get on her nerves. "Don't you all have anything better to stare at?" she barked at a group of staring students.

"Sera-chan sure is popular," Ran remarked quietly.

"I still can't think who that guy could be," said Sonoko, putting her head on her chin and thinking hard. "A young guy we both know means he's probably a freshman here, but who does _she_ know? She isn't in any clubs or anything, and there haven't been any school events since she got here. Any luck, Ran?"

"No. But I just had an idea of how we can find out!"

"Oi, what are you talking about back there?" Sera asked.

The other girls jumped. "Oh, nothing much!" Sonoko said hastily. "Come on, Ran!" she said, dragging her friend off.

XXX

It was mid-afternoon when Ran and Sonoko burst into the Mouri Detective Agency. Kogoro Mouri had been busy reading the newspaper, but was so shocked by their slamming the door he nearly dropped his beer. "Oi Ran! What are you doing?" he shouted.

Ran and Sonoko ran up in front of his desk with identical playful grins on their faces. "It's a case!" they exclaimed simultaneously.

"A case?" said Kogoro, putting his paper down. He'd been having a perfectly normal afternoon, and therefore wasn't in the mood for a case. "If it's a case, go get that tomboy girl to take care of it; I'm busy now." Satisfied with that answer, he opened the paper back up.

"But Dad, it's _about_ Sera-chan!" said Ran, which made Kogoro pause.

"What, did that girl actually get identified as a girl by a stranger or something?" said Kogoro, grinning.

"No! It's a boyfriend!" Sonoko exclaimed.

That lost Kogoro's interest completely. "So go ask her about him instead of bugging me. And count me out of going along."

"Come on, Dad!" said Ran. "Help us out here! Nobody knows who he is and Sera-chan won't tell us. Please."

Kogoro still didn't really care. "If she won't tell you, it means it's none of your business. So don't bother yourself with it." At this point, he got out his earbud to listen to the races, signaling the conversation was over. The only problem with that plan was that Sonoko snatched it out his hand before he could put it in. "Oi, what are you doing?" Kogoro exclaimed.

"Dad, we need some HELP!" Ran said loudly, bringing her fist down on the desk with a loud 'bang', thereby putting an end to the argument.

"Fine…give me…your info…" said Kogoro meekly.

"Right then!" said Sonoko cheerfully. "Here's what we know. Sera-chan was spotted by some freshmen at Beika Park yesterday after school. However, they were sitting at such an angle that the tree blocked their view of the boy. Then Sera-chan came over and chased them off. Today at school, she gave us one clue, that it was a younger guy that Ran and I both knew. But neither of us could think of a younger guy we think Sera-chan would be into."

"I'm home!" Conan announced as he entered the office.

"Oh hello, Conan-kun!" said Ran. Sonoko just looked at him in silence. Then it looked like a light bulb went off in her head.

"Ran, I just had an idea!" Sonoko announced. "Brat, get out of here!" She pointed at the door and Conan, with an exasperated/annoyed look, left.

"What is it, Sonoko?" Ran asked.

"Well, if it's a younger guy we both know, what if it was the brat?"

"What are you saying?" Kogoro butted in rudely. "Why would that tomboy go on a date with the brat?" He tried to open his newspaper again, but Sonoko stopped him.

"Come with us and prove it, then!" she shouted. However, Ran looked a little troubled by Sonoko's deduction.

XXX

"Is that true? You're the famous Sleeping Kogoro?" the guard asked in amazement.

"You bet!" said Kogoro, grinning. "If you need anything, all you have to do is ask."

Ran had followed Sonoko and her father to Beika Park out of worry and to ease her mind. She had to admit she'd been curious when she'd heard Sera had been on a date, since she hadn't really thought of Sera as the type of girl to do that before. But then Sonoko had suggested that it had been Conan she'd been seeing. While that, of course, was ludicrous, it had gotten her thinking. What if the reason they hadn't been able to identify anybody was because they never saw that person. What if it had been… _Shinichi_? And that scared her. Conan and Shinichi acted a lot alike, and Conan and Sera got along fairly well, she guessed. So was it that much of a stretch?

"I'm not really supposed to let anybody see these, though…" said the guard. He was the security guard that monitored the park security cameras. They'd gone to see him so they could hopefully identify Sera and the guy from archived footage.

"Well, we won't tell if you won't," said Ran, winking at him with what she hoped was a cute face.

"All right, then," said the guard, letting them in. The interior of his guard shack wasn't anything special, just two or three TV monitors on one wall. On the other side was the info kiosk, which had brochures and souvenirs. The guard sat down and asked, "So you want to know who was here between 3 and 6 PM yesterday? Let me get that for you."

As the guard got set up, Ran couldn't help but feel worried again. What if it _had_ been Shinichi? She thought she and Shinichi had met Sera before, so it was possible they'd kept in contact. But surely he'd have called her if he was in the city, right?

"Oh, here we go!" Sonoko exclaimed. The guard stood back as the three of them searched the screens.

"There's Sera-chan!" Ran noted as Sera appeared on the screen. Sera stopped and waved before moving off screen. They switched cameras and continued to look for any sign of the guy. The only problem was that since the tree the two were sitting under was a ways off the path, no cameras had it in view.

"Oh look, it's Subaru-san!" said Sonoko, pointing at her screen. The she squinted. "Isn't that that little stuck-up girl the brat's always with?"

Ran looked at her screen, too. "You're right, it is Ai-chan! But is she with Subaru-san? Oh, they separated!" The little girl stayed in view of the camera as Subaru jogged away. Then some girls in Teitan High uniforms entered the frame, stopped and pointed off screen at the tree, and then ran behind some bushes. In a surprise move, Haibara joined them. About two minutes later, Sera entered the frame and started to chew the girls out for spying. However, when Haibara saw Sera approaching, she hid in the bushes and went unnoticed. Sera disappeared again, but showed up on another camera with her bag heading out.

The two girls still hadn't seen any evidence of the guy, so they started frantically searching the other feeds from before Sera arrived and after Sera left, but they still didn't find any evidence. "It can't be…" Sonoko said eventually, laying her head down on the desk.

Ran turned to the guard and asked forcefully, "Do you have a map of the park's camera coverage?"

The guard jumped. "I'm sorry, but I don't have anything like that!"

Kogoro, who had gone outside to smoke for much of the search, stepped in. "If you haven't found anything, then it's time to go. I'm hungry and this has been a big waste of time."

Ran and Sonoko looked at each other. Instead of being put off, Ran felt even more intrigued by the mystery man. Who would purposely bypass security cameras just to meet a girl for a date in a public place where anyone could see them? From the look on Sonoko's face, she knew she felt the same way and that they had the exact same idea for what to do next.

* * *

You can see how this is escalating now, can't you? A bunch of coincidences have Ran and Sonoko convinced that it must be a master spy or something. It'll eventually get straightened out, but the seeds of a relationship between the two are slowly getting planted. It's just going to take a while (ten more chapters at the _minimum_ ) before this becomes obvious. As a side note, I particularly enjoyed writing Kogoro's scene since his silly/rude reactions to everything are just that much funnier when you hear his thoughts on the matter.

Hit the favorite button and review if you're enjoying this and you'd like to see more. ;)


	4. Conan Realizes What's Going On

And so the wacky hijinks continue. Thank you for those of you who favorited and reviewed; those really mean a lot to me. As an interesting tidbit, my writing policy is that I can't end a chapter until it at least hits 1500 words, which I enabled because some people years ago complained about the chapters being too short. I don't really have that problem anymore, do I?

* * *

Chapter Four

Subaru Okiya was busy making stew when the doorbell rang. 'Who might that be?' he wondered, taking off his apron and heading for the door. When he opened the door, he relaxed his guard when he saw it was just Ran and Sonoko.

"Sorry, did we interrupt something?" Ran asked apologetically.

"Not at all; I was just cooking dinner," said Subaru, smiling gently and moving out of the way to let them in. Since he couldn't let his stew go unsupervised, he led the way to the kitchen for them to talk. "Now, what can I do for you ladies?"

The girls were quiet for a moment before Sonoko broke the silence. "You went to Beika Park yesterday, right?"

"Yes, I go jogging there occasionally. What about it?"

"Well, well…" Sonoko sputtered.

Ran looked nervous too, but she said, "Did you see Sera-chan there yesterday?"

'What's this about?' Subaru thought suspiciously. He decided to humor them for the moment to see just why they were both acting so strangely. "That's the detective girl with the short hair, right? Yes, I saw her."

This seemed to give Sonoko new energy. "Who was she with then? It was a guy, right? A handsome guy?"

Now Subaru definitely knew something was up. "What is this about, exactly?" he asked, looking at Ran.

Ran took a deep breath before explaining. "There were some rumors going around at school today that Sera-chan was on a date with some guy yesterday, and Sonoko and I were just wondering who it was is all. You saw him, right?"

"Yes, I saw who it was. But I doubt they'd appreciate it if I told you. Whoever Sera-san was there to meet, it should be her that tells you, not someone else. After all, let's say for example, that you, Sonoko-san, were to meet up with a male friend, not your boyfriend, for a private chat about something innocent, and someone saw and threatened to tell someone. Would you like that?"

"No…" Sonoko muttered.

"And you, Ran-san," he continued. "What if someone told Shinichi-kun about you talking with a friend?"

Ran didn't say a word. She glanced at Sonoko before they both instantly started apologizing for wasting his time before quickly leaving.

'Well, that's one thing settled,' he thought, beginning to text on his phone.

XXX

"WHAT?" Conan exclaimed loudly, looking at his phone with a look of surprise and horror.

"What's the matter, Shinichi?" Professor Agasa exclaimed, racing over with a look of alarm on his face.

Conan quickly put the phone away before anyone saw. "Oh, just gossip," he lied.

"Oh, really?" Haibara asked from her spot near the stove. "You're not hiding things from us again?" she asked suspiciously.

"Of course not!" Conan lied. Haibara shrugged and went back to cooking while Hakase joined her. 'So that's why they were acting odd earlier,' Conan thought, thinking about the message he'd just gotten from Subaru. 'Somebody must have seen us and spread rumors. But since the rumors exist, they must not have seen _me_ , right?' He got up and began messing with a soccer ball in an open area of the floor. 'First I need to calm down. The only people that saw you there were Sera and Subaru-san. Since they won't tell, there won't be a problem, right? No wait! Haibara knew I was going!' He glanced over at the fake girl, who was busy stirring the food and paying him no attention. 'No, it couldn't be…could it?'

From what Subaru had said, the situation was starting to get a little dangerous. He himself wouldn't be able to do much of anything without drawing suspicion. That meant he'd have to turn to someone who could. He left the room, quickly keying in a number on his phone.

"Yo, Conan-kun!" a rather happy voice sang out from the other end.

"What are you doing?" Conan asked quietly.

"Oh, so you heard. Yeah, I didn't start those rumors; I just didn't dispel them."

"So Sera-san, this _is_ your fault," said Conan dangerously.

"No, of course not," said Sera quickly. "It's just that I got approached by about twenty girls in the hall earlier, and they all got up in my face and started asking personal questions, so I had to do a little impromptu to get them to leave. Well, at first I said it was a secret, but Ran-chan and Sonoko-chan wouldn't let it go, so I kind of told a…half-truth. Why, did they find you?"

"Apparently nobody saw me, which is surprising. Although _you_ left an impression."

"Well of course I did! What did you want me to do, just sit there and get spied on? A woman has to have secrets you know!"

Conan flinched when he heard that last line; it sounded similar to Vermouth's catchphrase. "Well, no matter whose fault it was, we've got a problem to sort out."

"Yeah, you're right about that," said Sera, taking on a serious tone. "I don't care for shotacon and I don't want anybody else thinking that. And I'd rather keep you out of this. I guess this is a lesson that you shouldn't invite girls out if you don't have any interest in them, right Conan-kun? I tell you what; I'll say that the meeting was a one time deal and there's nothing for anybody to be concerned about. Is that all right for you, tantei-san?"

"Sure, and don't get cold feet this time," said Conan, hanging up.

"Oh, are you ordering ice?" Haibara asked suddenly, scaring the crap out of Conan. He hadn't noticed her approaching.

"Never you mind," said Conan rudely, still annoyed by the whole Sera situation.

"What's going on, Kudo-kun?" Haibara asked worriedly. "Don't tell me it's _them_."

"No, it's a personal thing," said Conan, looking at the food with a hungry expression. It wasn't Ran's cooking, but with Ran sniffing around it was better for him to keep his distance.

"What? Is there something wrong with the food?" Haibara asked with a deadpan stare. "You're staring." Conan jumped and, wary of Haibara, got his food and sat down. Haibara ladled some out for herself and Hakase, and they joined him.

"So? How was your conversation with that girl?" Haibara said quietly.

"Oh, do you mean Ran-kun?" Agasa said, not understanding her intent. "Come to think of it, she was acting oddly earlier."

"Odd?" Conan asked. "What do you mean?"

"While Ai-kun and I were out shopping for the food ingredients, we saw Ran-kun and Sonoko-kun taking Mouri-tantei in the direction of Beika Park. It seems like they wanted him to solve some kind of case for him."

'So they used him to gain access to the park's security cameras, which is how they found out Subaru-san was there,' Conan thought.

"Though if it was a case, why didn't you go with them, Shinichi?" Agasa finished.

Conan took a long look at Haibara's smirking face before saying, "They kicked me out while they were discussing it, so I assumed it was just adult gossip or something. I could care less about gossip."

"You're mentally an adult, but you don't care about things that happen at your school?" Haibara asked, slowly chewing her food while staring at him suspiciously. "By the way, that reminds me. I think I finished a new prototype antidote the other day."

"REALLY?" Conan asked, instantly forgetting his dilemma.

"Well, sort of," said Haibara. "It's not actually a new antidote. What I was trying to do was make a supplement for the existing antidote. What it does is that if you take the supplement while using the antidote, it automatically cancels out the antidote's effects and you revert back to a child immediately without having to wait for it to wear off. I was aiming to help avoid any more unfortunate switch-backs in awkward situations. We both remember the time you got stuck in the bathroom, right?"

Conan was disappointed that it wasn't a true antidote, but he had to admit she had a point. Plus, being able to control when he changed back was a lot better than simply waiting for it to run out. "Do you need a test subject?" Conan asked enthusiastically.

"Oh, are you volunteering?" Haibara smirked. Conan instantly got the feeling he was being teased again.

"Well, I figured you wouldn't want to try in on yourself, so, uh…" he stammered.

"Shinichi, are you sure about this?" Agasa asked worriedly.

"Of course I'm sure," he said firmly. "Just trust me, Hakase."

XXX

Ran was busy making dinner at home after being told off. She felt incredibly guilty for being so nosy, but at least Subaru-san had been nice enough not to shout. Although his staying calm somehow made the guilt she felt that much worse. As she was thinking to herself, the doorbell rang. "If it's a client, tell them to come back tomorrow," said Kogoro drunkenly from the next room.

After making sure she could step away from the food for a minute, Ran left the kitchen and went to the door. When she opened it, she was met with a rather shocking sight. "Shinichi!" she breathed, looking at the handsome young man standing in front of her.

"Yo, Ran!" said Shinichi, stepping inside past the visibly shocked Ran. "How've you been?"

Ran was speechless for a moment. Then she felt tears coming to her eyes. "You detective geek!" she screeched. "Just where have you BEEN? What have you been doing?"

Shinichi's grin vanished. "Sorry, Ran, but the case I've been working on is really long and intensive, and I hardly ever get breaks. But since I got a break this time, I figured I'd come check up on you. Should I have called first?"

Upon hearing that, Ran's face flushed. "No, that's OK, Shinichi. Conan-kun isn't here tonight anyways, so it's a bit lonely."

Just then, Kogoro rounded the corner, bottle of beer in hand. "What is HE doing here?" he demanded, shoving past Ran and putting a finger in Shinichi's chest.

"Give it a rest, Dad!" said Ran hotly. "He had some time off, so he just came to visit for the evening."

Kogoro looked between the two of them and decided not to argue further. "Fine, but I'm not going to bed until _after_ he leaves. I don't trust you two alone together."

"DAD!" said Ran, embarrassed. Shinichi sat down at the table in Conan's usual seat while Kogoro continued on his bottle. Ran, seeing the two of them weren't going to argue, went back to cooking, although her mind wasn't really on it anymore. 'Shinichi's here!' she thought to herself, grinning. She was the happiest she'd felt in a long time.

* * *

And so Shinichi returns, at least temporarily. I wonder if Haibara is purposely trying to torment him by giving him the pill while all the rumors are swirling around. :P

Hope you enjoyed Subaru's POV, by the way. He isn't somewhere whose thoughts we hear often.

For perspective, the antidote he just took is the same as all the other ones, and has a 24 hour time limit. The new supplement instantly halts the timer and transforms him back into a kid. Knowing him and his ego though, I wonder if he'll actually use it...


	5. Shinichi Returns

So Shinichi is back, but he doesn't know exactly what he's walking into. I'm still don't really like the second half of this chapter, but I'll let you form your own opinion on that.

Longest chapter yet, BTW.

* * *

Chapter Five

Sera and Sonoko waited for Ran on the stairs outside the Detective Agency the following morning, waiting for Ran to come out for school. She'd said she had a surprise to show them, which had made Sonoko instantly guess it was Shinichi and race over. Sonoko had also invited Sera, who had decided to put in an appearance on the slim chance she was right.

"What are you two doing here?" Conan asked as he exited the living space on the third floor. Don't you have school?"

"Ran said she had a surprise!" said Sonoko at once. "I bet it's that Shinichi-kun came back! Well, is it?"

"Who knows?" Conan shrugged, walking past them and out of the stairwell.

"Rude…" Sonoko muttered as Conan disappeared. Just then the door opened and Ran emerged.

"Thanks for waiting," Ran said. "He needed some help getting ready." Then she stood aside as Shinichi Kudo, dressed in a Teitan High guys uniform, walked out on the landing.

'No way!' Sera thought, staring at Shinichi in utter shock. She had just seen him walk past as Conan, hadn't she? She glanced down the stairs where 'Conan' had just walked by.

"I knew it!" Sonoko yelled, clapping Ran on the shoulder. "You've been checking out your wife's place, huh, Kudo-kun?" she said, looking at Shinichi suspiciously.

"Actually, I stayed over here because my house is occupied and I didn't want to disturb the guy living there," said Shinichi.

'That's right; Subaru-san lives in his house,' Sera thought. "Well, it can't really be helped, I guess," she said out loud.

"Oh, that's right!" Ran exclaimed. "Shinichi, this is Sera-chan, the new transfer student I told you about."

Shinichi looked Sera up and down for a moment before saying, "Well, look who it is. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

'Eh?' Sera thought. 'Does he…actually remember me?' Ran and Sonoko looked equally stunned at this news. "Yes, I guess it has," Sera replied. "Well, you've certainly grown up since then."

"So have you, Sera," said Shinichi. "Except in one department, of course." He made a gesture indicating he was talking about her chest, which got her fired up at once.

"Hey! Don't go judging someone by their lack of assets!" she shouted, which made Shinichi grin. Ran however, looked troubled, which Sera took as a sign of jealousy. "Now, shouldn't we get going to school?" she asked, looking at the time on her phone.

"That's right!" said Sonoko, pushing Ran and Shinichi together. "The two lovebirds, finally united after so long, start their first day by sharing a walk to school together. Come on, Sera-chan!" Before Sera could react, Sonoko was dragging her down the stairs. However, Sonoko dragged her behind a vending machine so they could spy on them.

XXX

"Well, look who came to school together!" a boy called out as Shinichi and Ran entered the school grounds.

'Well, at least this didn't change,' Shinichi thought as the entire yard went crazy. The teasing followed them inside to the classroom.

"Welcome back, Kudo-senpai!" a girl called from down the hall as Shinichi and Ran entered the room.

"Yo Kudo!" a guy called out. "How've you been?"

"Fine, thanks!" said Shinichi, heading towards his usual seat. Ran got shunted out of the way as the guys dragged him off to talk.

"So, are you two official?" a guy asked, glancing at Ran.

"What? Don't be silly; it's not like that!" Shinichi replied, which only made the guys start teasing him more. Then Sonoko and Sera walked in, which got the guys' attention.

"You see that girl with the short hair, Kudo? She's a detective as good as you, and she's cute!"

"Oh, you mean Sera? She seems nice enough."

"She's nice enough, sure," the guy continued, "but there's been a rumor going around that she's seeing some guy. How are we supposed to have a chance if she's seeing some younger guy?"

'Not this again,' thought Shinichi. "So, what? You want me to investigate or something?"

"Of course!" the guys shouted, clapping him on the back.

'But you know; I won't find him because that guy was me…' Shinichi thought.

XXX

Sera sneezed again, the third in ten minutes. "I wonder if they're talking about you?" Sonoko suggested as they watched Shinichi and the boys talking.

"Maybe they are," said Sera thoughtfully.

"You should tell them what you just told us," said Ran. "It was just a friend, right?"

"Of course!" said Sera. "I just didn't deny it because you looked so serious about it!"

"Is that so?" Ran and Sonoko said simultaneously, looking stunned.

"Everyone, take your seats please," said the teacher as he entered the room. Then he saw Shinichi. "Oh, welcome back, Kudo-kun. You've gotten copies of the notes you missed from Mouri-san, I presume?"

"Uh, sure," said Shinichi, taking his old seat and ignoring the snickering coming from the guys. He sat down at his old seat, the empty desk that was next to Sera.

The teacher continued, "Now, let's begin the day."

The school day passed relatively uneventfully until classes were over. As the bell rang, a group of the guys showed up and dragged Shinichi away. 'What's that about?' Sera thought. As Ran and Sonoko left, some other girls came up to talk to her.

"Hey, Sera-san," said one. "We noticed you looking at Kudo-kun during class today, so we were just wondering if you _liked_ him or something,"

'Yikes!' Sera thought, instantly getting wary. The last thing she wanted was to give that impression. "Of course I don't!" she replied quickly. "I was just observing him to see if I could gather any clues as to where he's been this past year. As a detective, you know."

"Oh!" the girls all exclaimed, sounding relieved.

"What, are you all part of his fan club or something?" Sera asked, making them all visibly twitch.

"Don't be silly, Sera-san!" the first girl said again, blushing horribly. The girls quickly went away before Sera could say anything else. A couple of guys walked by, glanced at her, and sighed loudly.

'Right, only Ran-chan and Sonoko-chan actually believed me,' thought Sera. She'd told other people, but they hadn't really bought it, mainly because she hadn't given them any proof. Now she needed a new game plan, but she'd promised herself that she wouldn't do anything else without consulting the other person first. With that, she left the room, changed into civilian clothes in the bathroom, and left the school grounds. As she started walking down the road, she sent a text saying 'We need to talk, face to face. Meet me outside my hotel in thirty minutes.'

'Well, once we meet up in person, we should be able to get this misunderstanding behind us,' she thought. When she reached the bus stop, she was surprised to see Shinichi waiting there as well. "Oh, do you have business in Haido, Kudo-kun?" Sera asked in surprise. She'd seen physical proof that morning that Conan and Shinichi were two different people, so the fact that Shinichi was heading in the direction she'd just told Conan to go was a bit odd.

"You could say that," he said vaguely. Then his phone rang and he had to excuse himself. He had his back to her, but from the way he was rubbing his head as he spoke, she figured he was talking to a girl. A loud girl by the way he was holding the phone away from his ear. He seemed to be begging the girl to do something, but from the shouting she wanted no part of it.

"Ran-chan, huh?' Sera thought, smiling sadly to herself. He must've slipped away from her and was paying the price for it now. Well, considering how long he'd been away, she had every right to be mad.

"Sorry about that," said Shinichi, returning to the bus stop looking dejected. "One of my friends had a misunderstanding."

'Eh? It wasn't Ran-chan?' Sera thought. There was silence for a minute before she eventually asked, "So, what are you doing back, exactly?"

"What? I can't see my friends occasionally?" Shinichi asked back, sounding suspicious.

'What's with that reaction?' Sera thought. 'What's he been doing?' "Of course you can, Kudo-kun!" she told him apologetically. "I just thought that maybe you'd been delayed by something for the last several months and now was your only chance. Was I wrong?"

From the look on his face, Sera could tell she was right about something, although he didn't admit anything. By this point, the bus had arrived. As Sera got on, she got the feeling she was being watched. She spun around, but whoever it was, if there was anybody at all, wasn't visible. 'Maybe Kudo-kun is just making me paranoid,' she thought, turning around and getting on.

They continued chatting while the bus traveled. Shinichi didn't mention having met her before, and acted like he hadn't, preferring to ask her about her interests and hobbies. Sera obliged out of curiosity; Shinichi was acting weird, but it was subtle. Sometimes when she talked, his eyes seemed to glaze over, like he'd heard what she was talking about before. Maybe Ran had told him some things.

Eventually, Shinichi got off a few stops before Sera's hotel. "You're getting off?" she asked in surprise.

"I told you I had business, you know," he replied. Then he got off and the bus started moving again. At her stop, Sera waited for about five minutes before another bus came and Conan got off. He looked hot and bothered, and was sweating like crazy.

"You didn't have to run, Conan-kun," said Sera once he'd stopped in front of her.

"I didn't run," he said. "The bus was really hot was all." He seemed really annoyed about something, but didn't share.

"Oh, it was?" Sera asked. The bus she'd been on hadn't been that hot, so either the next one had a broken air conditioner or the sweat was from something else. Either way, she figured it was better if they went in and cooled off. "Why don't we go in and get a snack, then?" she suggested. "My treat!"

Conan seemed to think about it for a minute before agreeing. Sera led the way to a restaurant built into the hotel and took Conan to a seat in the middle of the dining area, one where'd they'd be visible from all sides. "So? What did you want to talk about?" Conan asked, cutting right to the chase.

"You know that whole 'date' misunderstanding I told you about? Well, I told Ran-chan and Sonoko-chan what you suggested I say, and they believed it, but no one else will and I'm still being stalked. I can't do my job as a detective if I'm being stalked all the time by people hoping to catch a glimpse of the imaginary guy."

"So you're asking _me_ for help again?" Conan asked in surprise.

"You're involved in this too, you know," said Sera, reaching over and pinching his cheek. "You're the reason the guys are so curious."

Conan got out of her grip and took a sip of his drink. Then Sera's phone rang. Seeing on the Caller ID that it was Ran, Sera answered. "Oh, Ran-chan!" she exclaimed.

"Sera-chan, do you know where Shinichi is?" Ran asked worriedly.

"Oh, Kudo-kun? He was on the bus with me to Haido, but he got off at the big department store near my hotel. He said he had business."

"Oh," said Ran. "I guess that's what that mail was about. He got a message and ran off, according to the guys he was with. If it wasn't you, then I wonder who it was."

Sera remembered the phone call from the girl he'd gotten, but since she didn't know who it was, she didn't mention it. "Why don't you call him and ask?" Sera suggested.

"I've been trying, but I guess another time won't hurt," said Ran. She hung up, and Sera went back to her conversation.

"Was that Ran-neechan?" Conan asked innocently.

"Yeah, it was. Apparently, Kudo-kun ran away suddenly again, so Ran-chan's looking for him. I told her to call him to make sure he's OK."

That was when it happened. For a fraction of a second, Sera could've _sworn_ that Conan had gotten a panicked look on his face, but then it was gone. 'Odd,' thought Sera. 'Why's he so worked up? A day ago she would've thought it was because he and Shinichi were the same, but Conan had walked down the stairs less than ten seconds before she'd seen Shinichi. That obviously wasn't enough time for him to get back into the office. Plus, Ran had been with Shinichi for a while before that. After all, it's not like he could be in two places at once, right?

As she looked at Conan, who had taken a cell phone out and started fiddling with it, she decided to test him. If he truly wasn't Shinichi, he'd seen through her at once. But if he was…

"Hey, Conan-kun," she began again, "I've been thinking about what you said this morning, and I'm having trouble coming up with an answer. Could I ask for a hint?"

"A hint, Sera-no-neechan?" Conan asked curiously. However, she'd seen a flash of panic cross his face again. The expression was so subtle only someone good at observation would notice it.

Thinking quickly, Sera continued, "Yeah, Sonoko-chan asked you if you were going to grow up like Kudo-kun and fall in love with one of your friends. You said, and I quote, 'Sonoko-neechan, I don't know what you mean.' So Sonoko-chan asked you point-blank which of your friends you liked more, but you said, 'If you really want to know, it should be obvious, don't you think?' Then you walked off without a care in the world. But that's not really enough for an answer, so I figured I'd ask for a hint."

Conan just looked at her for a moment before saying, "Sorry, Sera-san, no hints!" in a cheeky tone before going back to his juice.

Sera just looked at Conan like she'd seen a ghost. 'It can't be!' she thought. 'I _saw_ him and Kudo-kun right near each other! But since he doesn't remember that that conversation never took place, it means he wasn't there to hear it. Which means he's…"

"Sera-no-neechan?" Conan asked suddenly, breaking her out of her thoughts. "Could I ask you something?"

"Oh, what is it?" she asked.

"Before the whole 'date' fiasco started, you seemed preoccupied all the time. Did something happen?"

'So he _did_ notice,' thought Sera. 'Well, it's a family problem, so I can't exactly tell him, can I?' "Actually, I guess I was a little grumpy then. But it doesn't matter now, does it? I solved that problem, so it won't be bothering me anymore. The problem now is the whole date thing. Any ideas?"

"If they won't believe the truth, then tell them a believable lie," said Conan. "Just say you were meeting your brother and you lied because he doesn't want people to see him."

'That…might actually work,' thought Sera. 'My brother is kind of handsome when he bothers to shave. They just might buy it.' "You know what? Maybe I will."

"So, is that really what you wanted to ask?" Conan asked suddenly. "It seems a little much to ask for a meeting just to ask a question like that."

He still seemed annoyed for some reason, so Sera had to quickly improvise. "No, actually. We got run out of the park the other day, so I figured we'd keep talking if there was something you wanted to hear." Conan thought for a minute, but was interrupted by Ran calling to ask if he'd seen Shinichi, and then demanding that he return to the Detective Agency immediately. 'Well, I guess that's that," Sera thought as Conan got up and left. They hadn't talked long enough for the food to arrive, so Sera cancelled the orders, paid for the drinks, and went back upstairs.

"I'm home!" Sera said loudly as she entered her hotel room. Instantly, she froze. Even from the door, she could see the room had been ransacked. She took a few steps in and saw that there was stuff everywhere. Furniture had been overturned, clothes had been ripped from the closets, and the bedding had been slashed to pieces. However, the most obvious difference was the rather distinct lack of another person in the room.

'She wouldn't leave without me,' Sera thought frantically, quickly searching the suite for any signs of her. It was while she was searching that she noticed the note on the bed.

 _I have your sister. If you ever want to see her again, you'll bring the SD card with all my data on it to Café Columbo at 7PM. Tell the police and you'll regret it._

There was only one problem. Sera had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.

* * *

The catalyst for Shinichi shifting his affections has now begun to occur. It's subtle now, but other characters are going to notice his changing feelings before long, before even he himself does.

Just to clarify: Shinichi lied about remembering her in order to trick her into spilling the beans. Just in case that wasn't obvious.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and look forward to more! :)


	6. Attending the Drop

I generally don't do criminal cases in romance stories, but this one is essential because it's a catalyst for something a little later. I'm well aware that Ran is acting a little OOC in this chapter, and it's only going to get worse. This is because I'm setting up for the big ShinRan split-up later on, which has to happen because this is a ShinSera story. So if you're tired of the ShinRan stuff, that's going to be over at around chapter ten or so.

I'm also going to try to reply to more of the reviews from now on. So if you've got something you want to say, just hit the review button and tell me. Or you can PM me if you prefer. ;)

* * *

Chapter Six

Conan was on the bus back to Beika, currently using Shinichi's voice to apologize for running out on Ran. He had some choice words to tell Haibara about that conversation Sera had quoted, plus forcing him to turn back to himself because she didn't want to meet Sera, but he figured he'd wait until they were face to face for that. Eventually, Ran quit shouting and accepted his apology. Now he sat alone on the seat clutching the bag full of adult clothes he'd retrieved from the department store and thinking about the conversation that he'd had with Sera. He'd pretty much solved the whole 'fake date' issue by telling her to say she'd been talking with her brother, but there was something about her conversation that still bugged him.

When he got off the bus, he made a detour and went to Agasa's house to give Haibara a piece of his mind. Plus, she'd asked him to come over after he used the reverse pill so she could monitor for abnormal effects. The door was locked, so he had to ring the bell. When the door opened, he came face to face with…himself.

"Come back later," Haibara-as-Conan hissed. "The kids are in here right now." She rubbed at her neck, where the voice-changer choker was hidden.

"You let them come over?" Conan asked in surprise.

"They invited themselves," said Haibara flatly. "Tsuburaya-kun got a new board game that they're all into."

"Conan-kun!" Ayumi called from inside. "Come on back! It's your turn!" The little girl started walking towards the door, so Haibara quickly closed it before she could see who was outside.

With nothing else to do, Conan returned to the Detective Agency. When he got there, Kogoro was busy listening to the races again while nobody else was around. 'I guess Ran's not back yet,' Conan thought. 'If I hadn't been forced to transform back, I could've stayed with her and not worried her more.'

XXX

As soon as she'd heard Sera's suggestion to call Shinichi, Ran had taken it, but hadn't gotten any response. But Sera had said that Shinichi had taken the same bus as her, so Ran decided to investigate, dragging Sonoko with her. "Ran, Shinichi-kun can take care of himself," Sonoko said as they arrived at the stop. "Besides, if he is in a meeting, shouldn't we leave him alone?"

Normally, Ran would've agreed. She'd let Shinichi go and do his own thing for over half a year, but there was something suspicious going on. It was just a hunch she had; a feeling that something was _off_. So she was going to find Shinichi and make sure that everything was OK. Shinichi had called her saying that he was OK and not to worry, but it hadn't allayed Ran's suspicions. She just had this gut feeling that somebody was lying to her. That was why she'd forced Conan to go home; he couldn't cover for Shinichi as well if he wasn't around him.

"Excuse me!" Ran said, walking up to the nearest counter. "Did this boy enter this store recently?" She showed the clerk a photo of Shinichi she had on her phone.

"Come to think of it, he did," said the clerk. "He went to the bathroom over there about an hour ago." The clerk pointed at the restrooms near the front door.

"Where did he go after that?" Ran asked, looking at the hallway with the bathrooms with a glare that made Sonoko flinch.

"I don't know," said the clerk, shrugging. "But I wasn't really paying attention, so I don't know. Although, some guy started screaming in there right around then. Maybe it was him?"

"So you're saying Shinichi's in trouble in there and you haven't _done anything_?" Ran demanded. Without waiting for a response, she ran towards the bathrooms, slammed open the door to the men's room, and yelled "Shinichi! Are you in here?"

"Young lady, you shouldn't be in there!" the clerk said, having appeared in the doorway with Sonoko. Ran ignored them and began searching the room. The men in there were quite startled to see a teenage girl kicking stall doors open, so they all quickly left in their embarrassment, some of them with unzipped flys.

"Shinichi!" Ran yelled again. Eventually, she found a stall that was occupied. "Shinichi, are you in there?" Ran yelled, banging on the door. There was no response. Wasting no time, Ran used her karate to kick the door down. "Shinichi!" said Ran again, but stopped short when she saw the stall was empty. 'Why was it locked if there wasn't anybody in it?' Ran thought. She checked the rest of the stalls, but didn't find Shinichi.

"You didn't find Shinichi-kun, did you?" Sonoko said as Ran returned to the door.

"No," said Ran sadly. She was disappointed they hadn't found Shinichi, but she still had that gut feeling that something wasn't quite right. "I'm calling Sera-chan again," said Ran, striding out of the department store with Sonoko. Behind them, the broken stall door had been discovered, which meant they had to run to avoid being held responsible for it.

The girls took cover in a nearby alley to make the call and avoid the angry employees. "Oh, Sera-chan?" Ran said once the line connected. "It's about Shinichi again. Are you sure you saw him get off at the store? We asked around, but we lost his trail, so we were wondering…"

"Ran-chan," Sera cut in suddenly. "I don't mean to be rude, but I'm kind of busy right now. Could we talk about this later?" She spoke in a very serious tone, taking Ran off guard. Sera almost never talked like that unless she was on a case.

"What's the matter, Sera-chan?" Sonoko asked, butting in from where she'd been eavesdropping.

"Somebody ransacked my hotel room," said Sera quietly.

"WHAT?" Ran and Sonoko exclaimed simultaneously.

"Don't worry, though," Sera continued. "I've already called the police, and I'm a detective, so these guys won't stand a chance."

"Are you KIDDING?" Sonoko said loudly, "Somebody stole all your stuff! You'd better believe we're going to worry! In fact, we're going over there to help you out right now. Right, Ran?"

"Of course!" said Ran. Before Sera could protest further, Ran hung up and the two of them ran towards Sera's hotel.

XXX

Sera had lied about the police being around. Well, at least officially. She'd put in a call to Detective Takagi's cell to inform him of the situation. She didn't trust the main 110 line in case the kidnappers were monitoring it. She'd told him about the break-in, the note and its demands, and that a young family member that was briefly staying with her had been abducted. She didn't tell the truth on the last part for obvious reasons. Megure and Takagi had arrived with some officers dressed as cleaners, and now they were examining her room.

"So you really don't know anything about the SD card?" Takagi asked, looking at the note.

"No," Sera replied. "I don't have a sister, either. The note was typed, so it was probably prepared beforehand. It's likely the kidnappers got the wrong room. We should probably question the people in the surrounding rooms." She glanced out in the hallway, where Ran and Sonoko were standing, looking worried. All they knew was that it was a robbery, not that there was a kidnapping, and that was the way she wanted to keep it.

"Maybe they mistook someone else for being your sister and took her away," someone suggested. Sera looked down and nearly jumped at the sight of Conan's childish face looking up at her. He had his skateboard with him, which explained how he'd gotten back there so quickly.

'When'd he get here?' Sera thought. 'More than that, how did he find out?' She looked suspiciously at Ran, who was busy trying to convince an officer to bring Conan back to her. 'Actually, with him here, this might actually be easier,' she decided. She looked at the time and saw there was less than an hour until the specified meeting. "Conan-kun," she began, bending over to look him in the eye. "I need to leave to attend the drop and hopefully fake out the kidnappers with a fake SD. Go with the cops and ask around the hotel to see who the real targets are, OK?"

Conan looked at her with a serious expression before nodding. Then he grabbed Takagi and left to go question the residents of nearby rooms.

'If anybody can help, it's him,' Sera thought, smiling. Then it was time to go. Wordlessly, Sera left with several cops, who took her to the restaurant in an unmarked car. On the way, Sera was provided an SD card to pull off the bluff, as well as instructions about what to do along with a wire and a tiny speaker for her ear.

Sera was dropped off a few blocks away so as to not arouse suspicion. The restaurant was fairly crowded when she arrived. It was ten minutes before the scheduled time, so she took a seat at a table and ordered a drink. She put the SD card next to her glass so that the kidnappers would see it.

At seven on the dot, the public phone in the back near the restrooms rang. A waitress picked it up. She talked into the phone for a minute before asking the room at large, "Is there a Dojime-sama here?"

"Go pick up the phone," Megure told Sera over the mic after the waitress called out another two times and nobody answered.

"I'm Dojime," said Sera, approaching the woman. Wordlessly, she passed over the phone.

"Take the SD card out to the dumpster in back of the convenience store down the street and hide the card under it. We will contact you later on with the girl's location once we confirm the card isn't fake."

"Oh, by the way, is there any particular way you want the card? Do you want it by itself or in a case so water won't get on the metal part, or do you want something else?" Sera was purposely extending the conversation to ensure the police could get a trace on the call. She glanced around the restaurant, but she didn't see anybody on the phone.

The guy on the phone ignored her, and decided to just hang up. 'What is this guy planning?' Sera thought as she paid for her drink and left. 'Surely he realizes just how wrong this plan can go. And how is he so sure I didn't call the police?' After locating the store, she walked down the street and down the alley to the side of it. In the back alley, she quickly found the dumpster. She put the SD card behind one of the front wheels before walking away. She didn't leave, though. Instead she went and hid in a branching alley a ways away in order to catch a glimpse of the perpetrator and tail him. Some cops were also keeping an eye on the drop site.

It wasn't long before a thin man with a thick beard and a ball cap appeared from up the alleyway. He walked towards the dumpster, glancing around suspiciously, before 'casually' dropping a beer bottle. As he reached down to pick it up, he stuck his hand under the dumpster, rummaged for a bit, and then pulled out the card. All in all, it wasn't very subtle at all.

"Don't do anything yet," said Megure over the radio. "Tail him and see if he leads us to the hostage."

'Tailing this amateur won't be a problem,' Sera thought. Once the guy had turned out of the main alleyway, Sera started following him.

The kidnapper was clearly an amateur due to how he was acting. Two blocks away from the dropsite, he took off his disguise, which allowed the police to get his photo and ID him. "The suspect is Toyama Gou," said Megure. "He's been suspected before for being a blackmailer, but we've never been able to pin anything on him."

'Odd,' Sera thought. 'If he's on the police's radar, you'd think he'd be a little more careful. It's almost as if he wants to be found.' Then the true weight of that statement hit her like a pound of bricks. 'Don't tell me that _that's_ their goal?'

* * *

The kidnappers in this case are a combination of smart and dumb. That's all I'll say about that. I hope you'll look forward to the standoff between both sides and Sera kicking their faces in later. (Not next chapter, though. They have to find them first.)

Next chapter, they meet up with the kidnappers, have a confrontation, and get given a deadline.

The voice-changer choker comes from the Scarlet arc, BTW.


	7. Meeting the Kidnapper

From here, the case just keeps getting stranger. Can you guess what the kidnapper is actually after?

As a side note, I was rereading some of my older stories and realized just how old and unpolished they seem today. Plus, they also generally refer to pre-Mystery Train manga revelations, so they show their age. I was thinking of maybe updating them when I get the chance, so I put a poll on my profile if you'd like to suggest one. Or you could just send me a PM about it.

* * *

Chapter Seven

Conan had had no luck talking to the other guests. Even after Megure had informed Takagi that the culprit had referred to Sera as 'Dojime', Conan hadn't been able to locate a guest by that name. 'What is this?' Conan thought. 'We know the culprit, but we don't know the target. Besides, why would a blackmailer resort to kidnapping?' As he thought, a horrible idea flew into his mind. 'That can't be right, can it?'

"Wait, Conan-kun!" Ran shouted as Conan ran to the elevator. When the elevator dropped him off downstairs, Conan ran outside, hopped on his skateboard, and rode off to Beika as fast as he could go. He'd put a tracker on Sera in case something bad happened, so all he had to do was follow the signal.

He found Sera in a back alley near Columbo, keeping an eye on a dumpster. 'So she figured it out, too,' Conan thought. "Sera-no-neechan," he said quietly, making Sera jump in surprise.

"Conan-kun, you should know better than to sneak up on me!" Sera exclaimed, keeping her voice down. "You've realized it then, I take it?"

"Of course," said Conan. "There was nobody named Dojime in the nearby rooms, and a blackmailer with no history of kidnapping showed up. That means that you were the target all along. The kidnapper therefore would know that you'd ignore the warning and call the police. They therefore either blackmailed or paid a known blackmailer to pretend to pick up the card to draw away the cops they knew would be keeping an eye on the drop."

"Exactly," said Sera. "So now with the cops out of the way, they should show up and collect it before long. Well, considering it's a bluff, it's just wishful thinking at this point they'll show up."

"Wishful thinking pays off," said a new voice from behind them. Turning, they saw a man around Sera's height in a ski mask. He was standing a ways away and had a silenced pistol pointed at them. "My real target was you, Sera. I called you out here because I have a request for you, a detective that is virtually unknown in the media."

"A…request?" Sera asked in surprise.

"I have someone I want you to find. Once you find them, you will inform me immediately by sending me a text message from this burner." He took the phone out of his pocket and put in on the ground at his feet. I'm also giving you a time limit of one week to find the guy."

'I'll take this jerk out with my super-kick shoes,' Conan thought, putting one hand on his belt in preparation to pop out a soccer ball. Sera also seemed to be steeling herself to hit the guy.

"Don't even think about taking me out," the guy continued, smirking. "I made an arrangement with my partner that if I don't call him every twenty minutes, he should cut our losses and escape."

'Darn,' thought Conan. He knew Sera would never admit it to him, but the girl she was hiding in her room had obviously been kidnapped. If she was going to be killed if they took this guy out, they'd have to leave him alone.

"Who do you want found?" Sera asked through gritted teeth.

"Somebody who has essentially dropped off the radar," said the man. "He's another detective you may know named Kudo Shinichi."

'What?' Conan thought. 'Who is this guy?'

"What do you want with him?" Sera demanded.

"I have a question for him," said the man. "Fifteen months ago, he solved a case in Toriya City where a woman was murdered with cyanide in the basement of an office building. Kudo said she committed suicide after learning her husband was having an affair. However, if it was a suicide, where did she get the cyanide? It makes no sense!"

'I remember now,' Conan thought. 'The woman was found inside her car, and there was no sign of tampering. She had a brother that worked in a hospital, which she'd visited two days before the suicide. The hospital confirmed the cyanide had been stolen. Does that mean this guy is…'

Sera, of course, didn't know this. "Fine, I'll ask him about it the next time I see him."

"Oh, so you know him? Is he your boyfriend or something?" the man sneered. "Call him here. NOW." He fired a shot into the nearby wall to illustrate this point.

'Fool,' Conan thought, looking at Sera with a deadpan stare. She should've just said she'd look for him and not admitted to knowing him. At least she seemed to have realized this as well, judging by the flash of panic that had briefly registered on her face.

"Conan-kun, give me your phone," said Sera suddenly. She took his phone, looked through the contacts, and called Shinichi.

'Good thing I put my other phone on silent earlier,' Conan thought.

"He's not answering," said Sera, cancelling the call after a few rings. "How about this? I'll ask him about the case and give you a second opinion."

"No," said the man firmly. "I want to talk to him, face to face. Give him that phone and I'll set up a meeting. You have one week, and you know what will happen if you miss the deadline, don't you?" Satisfied with this, the man backed away until he left the alley. Right before he turned the corner, Conan used his suspenders to attach a tracking device to his coat.

XXX

"So, can I have one?" Conan begged, looking at Haibara with what he hoped was a pleading expression.

"No way," said Haibara, slowly and clearly. "You were lucky you were already shrunk when you met up with the kidnapper. Plus the choker makes my throat itch."

Conan had just explained what had happened that day, although in preoccupation with the kidnapper, he had forgotten to confront her over what Sera had told him. Plus the tracker had disappeared, so there was no way to tail him.

"Haibara, he demanded to see me, Kudo Shinichi. I'm supposed to set up a meeting with him, probably for revenge. Of course, he won't get that far, but I need to show up for that meeting as Shinichi. Plus, Sera has the kidnapper's burner phone, and she won't give it to me as Conan."

"So steal it from her," said Haibara. "She's staying at the Agency while her room is under police investigation, right?"

"Well, yeah, she is staying downstairs like I did last night, but I doubt she'd take kindly to it. I'm not Kaitou Kid; I can't steal from a detective and hope to go unnoticed. Besides, the only ones who know about the phone are Ran, the old man, her, and me. It's not exactly a large pool of suspects."

Haibara suddenly looked at him suspiciously. "Why are you being so resistant? Normally you wouldn't mind sneaking in somewhere. In fact, I generally have to _stop_ you."

Conan flinched. 'What is she on about?' he thought.

"By the stunned look on your face, it seems I hit the mark," said Haibara, smirking. "I wonder what the girl at the detective agency will think of this."

"Haibara…what are you talking about?" Conan asked, confused.

"Just remember, Kudo-kun; if I can see it now before even you know about it, it won't be long before _she_ notices, too."

"By _she_ , do you mean Ran?" Haibara didn't answer, instead opening up a magazine and yawning widely.

XXX

That evening, Conan was very nervous about what he was planning to do. They were eating dinner, with Sera as a guest. "Did you talk to Shinichi-niichan about the kidnapper?" Conan asked Ran.

"No, I sent him a text, but I haven't been able to talk to him. I wonder what meeting he's in?" Ran wondered. She looked down at the table, worried.

"You shouldn't worry about Kudo-kun, Ran-chan!" Sera reassured her. "He'll call you first thing in the morning! Right, Conan-kun?"

'She's asking me?' Conan thought, surprised. "Of course he will, Ran-neechan!" said Conan cheerfully, wary of Sera staring at him. 'Yeah, stealing from her isn't going to be easy,' Conan thought.

Once everyone had eaten, they watched TV while everyone except Kogoro, who was drunk, took turns taking a bath. Conan went first before the girls used up all the hot water. When he came back out, the two were watching Detective Samonji.

"It's the daughter!" Ran exclaimed. "It has to be, right Sera-chan?"

"I think it's the wife," said Sera, taking a bite from the bowl of popcorn they were sharing.

'Oi oi,' Conan thought, annoyed. 'Just what have these two been doing?'

"Oh, I'll go next!" said Ran, seeing Conan. "Let's see who the culprit is first, though." Conan hadn't seen enough of the program to make a deduction, so he just sat there until the commercial ended, bored.

"The culprit was you, his wife!" the TV detective said, pointing at the culprit.

"No way! I was wrong?" Ran asked in surprise, staring at the screen in disbelief for a moment before getting up and heading for the bathroom.

"So, what do you want to watch?" Sera asked as Conan took Ran's vacated seat. With Detective Samonji over, there wasn't anything else on he cared about, so he just shrugged. Seeing this, Sera turned on _Kamen Yaiba_.

"So, have you really not heard anything from Shinichi-niichan?" Conan asked, trying to break the silence.

"No. Ran-chan's been watching her phone all night, but there's been nothing. Maybe he's with a bunch of people and can't respond?"

'Yeah, you and Ran,' Conan thought. Ran hadn't let him go anywhere by himself once she found out what had happened. Shinichi's disappearance might have had something to do with that. Taking a bath had been the only exception to this, but he couldn't use his phone in there because Ran would've heard the sound of the water behind him. "The criminal said he had some sort of insurance to make sure you cooperated. Did he take something from your room? Or maybe some _one_?"

Sera looked at Conan for a moment. "Oh, it was just something precious to me, is all. Something irreplaceable."

'So she still won't tell me,' Conan thought. 'Just who is that girl, and why is Sera protecting her? If she's been kidnapped, why doesn't Sera trust me to help?'

After that conversation, nothing else really happened for the rest of the evening. Conan eventually got bored and pretended to go to bed. However, instead of sleeping, he pulled out a book and pretended to read. However, he'd left a bug under the table in there so he could listen to the conversation and know when to strike.

* * *

Ha, a cliffhanger. It's almost like I enjoy torturing you guys or something. :P But seriously, thanks for putting up with me and I'm glad that you all are enjoying the story.

As for the story, is Conan going to be able to steal the phone or is Shinichi going to have to make an emergency reappearance? Haibara won't like that if it happens.

I'll let you guys in on a secret: I'm actually farther ahead in this story than what I've posted on here so far. I think I'm right around Chapter Eleven right now. I wait between writing and releasing new chapters so that I can properly proofread and check for typos, as well as incorporate your feedback. That's how I know that ShinRan is going to end in Chapter Ten. I won't spoil you and say how, though. Just have tissues on hand if you're a fan of Ran.


	8. Planning the Meeting

I don't normally post on Tuesdays, since it's my longest day of the week, but I figured I'd make an exception for once.

I dunno if you all are interested in this, but yesterday for English class I gave a five minute presentation on the materiality of fanfiction as a medium. That means just what the strengths of fanfiction as a medium are in terms of distributing ideas and information, creating communities, and other things like that. Topics other people did include reddit, Facebook, and Pinterest, among others. Apparently I did a pretty good job because my professor asked me how to navigate this site and look at _Gilmore Girls_ stories. I swear I am not making this up. There's another group of presentations tomorrow and I'm going to laugh if someone does 4chan. :P

About this chapter, though, it's pretty much a transition between first encountering the kidnapper and taking him down. The two detectives share thoughts and contact the criminal to set up a meeting. I put in some humor to offset the dark tone, so I hope you enjoy it. I gave you a quick code, too. Try and solve it before I give you the answer! :)

* * *

Chapter Eight

'OK, it's now or never,' Conan thought as he entered the office downstairs. It was dead quiet apart from the wind whistling outside and the shallow breathing coming from one of the couches. Conan approached the sleeping girl carefully, wary that one misstep could result in serious injury for him. Her jeet kune do was no joke.

Using the light filtering in through the window, Conan examined the scene. There was a bag on the floor near her feet, but when Conan searched it, all he found were clothes and toiletries. Next he turned his attention to the girl herself. She was sleeping on the couch under an orange blanket, lying on her back with her fedora covering her face.

' _Please_ don't wake up,' Conan thought. Very carefully, he lifted a corner of the blanket and stuck his head under, looking for the cell. It was pitch black, so he clicked on his watchlight, but covered the watch face with his other hand so that only a sliver of light escaped. That way, he wouldn't wake anybody up.

After another few minutes of searching, Conan found what he was looking for. Unfortunately, there was a problem. He had been planning to leave a note from Shinichi to explain who had taken the phone and deflect the blame from him, but considering where Sera had put the phone, that had been rendered a very dumb course of action. Sera must have anticipated he'd try to take the phone because she had put it down her shirt, wedging it in the top of her tanktop. Conan wasn't fool enough to act that perverted, especially since he might get a nosebleed, so he slowly backed out from under the blanket.

It was when he was heading for the door that he heard movement behind him. Not waiting to see what was going on, he quickly ran to the door, opened and closed it as quietly as he could, and then ran back upstairs.

XXX

When Sera woke up the next morning, the first thing she checked was whether the kidnapper's cell phone was still there. It was, which meant her plan had worked. She knew that Conan and Shinichi were one and the same, so she figured he might try to steal it from her and pass it off as 'Shinichi-niichan showed up and took it' to get out of her chewing him out. Now that wasn't really an issue; if he'd failed once, he wouldn't show up again. She checked the bag she'd brought and saw that the contents had been moved slightly. 'Yeah, he tried,' she thought.

It was finally the weekend, so Sera had been able to sleep in, although it had taken her a long time to actually fall asleep out of worry. She headed upstairs, still yawning, to get a bite to eat. Ran and Kogoro were already up, but Conan was nowhere to be seen. "Is Conan-kun still asleep?" Sera asked, checking the time. It was half past nine.

"No, he got up early to play with his friends," Ran called from the kitchen.

"I wish my life were that carefree," Kogoro muttered, hungover.

'Do you now?' Sera thought, grinning to herself. She noticed Ran's phone lying on the table and decided to try calling Shinichi again. Conan wasn't around, so that meant he might actually answer, right? First, though, she looked up his actual phone number in Ran's contacts and input it on her own phone so she could call whenever she needed. The she used Ran's phone to call him.

The phone rang a few times before Shinichi answered. "Ran? It's a bit early in the morning. Did you want something?"

"Sorry, but I'm not Ran-chan!" Sera exclaimed cheerfully.

"Oh, Sera," said Shinichi. "Is this about the message from last night?"

"Yeah. The criminal gave me a cell phone to pass off to you. Is there any place we can meet up to exchange it?"

"Uh, well, I don't know if I'm going to be in town again for a while. Why don't you give it to the kid in the glasses? He'll pass it along to me."

"If he's just going to give it to you when you're in the city anyways, why not cut out the middleman and exchange it directly? Unless there's a _reason_ you can't show your face." Sera grinned, satisfied that she'd just backed him into a corner.

"Is that Shinichi?" Ran said suddenly, poking her head out of the kitchen with an angry look on her face. Sera nodded, so Ran walked forward and snatched the phone away. "SHINICHI!" she bellowed, making Kogoro cringe from the noise. "Just where did you go yesterday? You had me so worried! At least tell me when you're about to disappear on me, Shinichi!"

As Shinichi said something inaudible on the other end, Sera took out her own phone and updated the contacts list so that Shinichi's number had his name next to it. With that done, she took out the kidnapper's phone and examined it for any clues as to his identity. The serial number had been scraped off, though, so she didn't come up with any leads.

"By the way, Shinichi," said Ran suddenly, moving back into the kitchen and breaking Sera out of her thoughts. "I've been thinking some crazy things lately, so I just need a reassurance from you that…" Sera didn't hear the last part because Ran was too far away. A minute later, she heard Ran loudly saying, "Really? Oh, I'm so glad! I _thought_ it was crazy, but I couldn't stop worrying, and Sonoko kept egging me on to do rude things. You know how she gets about things like that."

Sera sneezed suddenly. 'Don't tell me I'm coming down with something?' she thought irritably, wiping her nose with a napkin. Then Ran reappeared and gave her the phone back. "So, when am I going to give you the phone, Kudo-kun?" Sera asked, picking up their conversation right where it had left off.

"Oh, well, about that," Shinichi stammered. Then there was some muffled talking, like he'd put his hand over the mic and was discussing something heatedly with somebody.

"Kudo-kun?" Sera asked after about a minute of no response. "Kudo-kun, are you still there?"

"I should be able to make it later today," Shinichi said at last, with a bit of a wary tone in his voice. "Do you have any ideas about the meet-up?"

"Hmm," said Sera, thinking. Ran brought out their breakfast, but from the way she was acting, Sera could tell she was listening in. The problem was that if they were going to be investigating, Ran might get in danger, which neither Sera nor Shinichi would want. Normally she wouldn't have cared since Ran could take care of herself, but the kidnapper was ruthless and good at manipulating people. Sera and Shinichi, as detectives, would be largely immune to his manipulations, since they'd be expecting them, but Ran wouldn't be. "Well, Kudo-kun, let's meet at the time closest to the numbers 156 & 78 at the place where you can check anything, but is going to disappear within twenty years."

Ran and Kogoro looked at her with stunned expressions. "Fine, I'll be there," said Shinichi. "Number 3 at the thing that started in London."

It was Sera's code, so she understood what he meant instantly. "Of course!" she said, before hanging up. Kogoro wasn't paying her any more attention, but Ran was still looking at her suspiciously.

XXX

Shinichi slipped out of Agasa's house unnoticed to head for the meet up. He was still wary about Haibara tailing him, since he had a suspicion she'd done it before. Plus there was that whole business that Sera had told him she'd done while dressed as him. He'd confronted her about it, but Haibara had denied it. She'd also been pretty resistant to giving him an antidote again, but Sera's talking on the phone had rattled her enough to give in after he kept pressing her about it.

The meeting location code was pretty simple. The relation between the two numbers was that 156 was twice 78, meaning the meeting was 2 PM. The place was, of course, the library, because with everything being transferred to the Internet, physical libraries could easily disappear before long. Within the library, Shinichi had told her to meet at the newspaper rack on the third floor.

Shinichi left early to throw the others off and killed time walking around. He also stopped by some of his old haunts. This served a double purpose of both allowing him to catch up with some of his old friends and providing alternate places for potential stalkers to stake out.

At ten till two, Shinichi arrived at Beika Library, the same library where he and the kids had run into the creepy librarian with the drugs way back when. As he went to the elevator to go upstairs, he kept an eye out for stalkers, particularly Ran. He knew Ran wouldn't like him meeting Sera alone, especially with the whole 'Sera's boyfriend' idea that had been floating around. He hoped he'd convinced her she was overthinking things, but he'd learned from experience that Ran could pretend to be convinced in order to see if he'd slip up.

When he got to the newspaper section, Sera was waiting for him. She'd been reading a book, but she snapped it shut and put it away before he could see what it was. "So you actually showed up," said Sera. "I had a thought that you wouldn't and you'd just send Conan-kun or something."

'If I hadn't made Haibara give me that antidote, 'Conan' _would_ have shown up,' Shinichi thought, taking a seat near her. "Now, what's going on?"

Sera quickly filled him in on what had happened, since he technically wasn't supposed to know the specifics. When she was done, Shinichi said, "I guess the criminal asked you to find me because he couldn't contact me normally, and he didn't go to the Agency because he was afraid they might be hiding me. So, it's revenge he's after, right?"

"Most probably. Nobody normally ransacks someone's room and forces them to find someone just to talk."

"Well, since there's no other reason for his behavior, it was kind of obvious," said Shinichi. "Plus, Conan told me about the case he mentioned."

"Did he?" Sera asked. She took a newspaper she'd gotten and showed him an article titled 'Teen Detective Solves Suicide Made to Look Like Murder'. "You're sure it's suicide, right?"

"Yeah," said Shinichi. "The woman had been having trouble with loan sharks, and was having trouble with her marriage. So she stole some empty capsules and cyanide from the hospital where her brother worked and planted all but one of the filled capsules in her ex's office. He was just a salaryman, by the way. Then she went to her car, took the capsule, and waited to die."

"But she messed up because she didn't leave enough fake evidence behind to properly condemn the ex," said Sera, looking over the article.

"Yeah," said Shinichi. "She had been planning to make it look like he slipped her the capsule, but he'd been away on an errand out of the city at the time of the crime. So while the cops found the capsules in his desk, he didn't have the time to commit the crime and return to his location. The capsule would've dissolved in half an hour and he was too far away; I think he was in Nara or something. The errand had been last minute, so the girl didn't know about it, and the evidence didn't match up. None of his coworkers had a motive to kill her, either. That's why it was a suicide."

"And the guy who is forcing you to see him is…?" Sera prodded.

"He's probably the brother that worked at the hospital. As I recall, he refused to believe she'd committed suicide and tried several times to get it overturned in court. He ended up so depressed he was fired from his job. I called the cops earlier and told them to search the brother's last known address, but the place had been abandoned. I think the whole experience made him go nuts."

"Let's go find him, then!" Sera said fiercely, standing up with a very determined look on her face. Passing him the kidnapper's phone, she said, "We're going outside so you can call him." Shinichi flinched because he remembered where exactly Sera had hidden the phone the other night, but he couldn't say a word about it. He made sure to wipe it down with his handkerchief while her back was turned.

Once they'd put up the newspapers and gone outside, Shinichi powered on the phone and made a call to the only contact in its memory. "This is Kudo, right?" a voice said, the same guy from the night before.

"Yes, I'm here," said Shinichi. "What do you want?"

"Oh, so it is you," said the man silkily. "Good. You didn't give the phone to the police, so that's good. It has a tracking device in it, so I'd know if you took it to a cop and tried to access its memory or figure out where I am. Now, are you willing to meet?"

"I'll do whatever you want as long as you give back what you took," said Shinichi firmly.

"Aren't you direct?" the man laughed. "Since I found the tracking device that little boy with the glasses planted on me and threw it in the river, I guess I'll have to tell you where I am. That's your game, right? You want me to just spill where I am so you can call the police and they'll raid me? I'm not falling for that!"

"Then I'll pick the place to meet," said Shinichi, ignoring Sera's look of surprise. "You can check to see if there's anybody lying in wait at your leisure, and you won't compromise your hideout."

"Are you crazy?" Sera whispered. "He won't agree to that! There's too many ways for it to go wrong for him!" Shinichi just put a finger to his lips, shushing her.

"All right, I'll do it," said the kidnapper, making Sera's mouth drop open in astonishment. "Once I've confirmed you're alone, I'll release my bargaining chip. I'll probably use a dumpster somewhere for that. Hope it's not trash day!"

"No, that won't do," said Shinichi. "I want the proof right in front of my eyes. Once I've seen that, I'll do what you want."

There was a pause for a moment. "Fine then, where do you want to meet?" the kidnapper asked. Shinichi quickly chose an out of the way place, the kidnapper chose the time, and he ended the call.

"What just _happened_?" Sera asked in utter confusion.

"I told you he's nuts," said Shinichi. "Normal logic doesn't work on him. He also seems to trust me for some unknown reason. He wouldn't have agreed to me picking the drop location otherwise."

"So you were testing him?" Sera asked.

"Yep. I've confirmed that he's utterly bonkers, that he'll bring what he took, and that he's going to walk right into our clutches."

* * *

So how do you catch a guy that normal logic doesn't work well on? Find out later! I hope you enjoyed the longer chapter, too. If there's something or somebody you'd like to see make an appearance later in the story, feel free to leave a review and tell me. I'm already planning one surprise character. I wonder who it is?

This chapter also marks the first in-story mention of Ran having doubts about Shinichi. It may seem OOC to some people, but I'll explain my reasoning once it becomes obvious that Ran's acting weird.

The library case is from Episode 50, BTW.


	9. The Trade-off

And now to see the kidnapper get what's coming to him! I can just imagine the look on his face when he realizes he walked into a trap. But that's what you get for being an idiot, I guess. :P

* * *

Chapter Nine

"I still can't believe that guy fell for this," said Sera as she and Shinichi headed for the location. Shinichi had chosen a warehouse down by the wharf for the exchange, so they'd hopped a bus and were on their way there. Sera was supposed to hide in the warehouse somewhere when they got there so she could save the hostage while Shinichi distracted the kidnapper. When Shinichi rubbed his right ear, that was the signal to strike.

When they arrived at the warehouse, Shinichi went inside while Sera hid in a box by the door. They were early, so the kidnapper hadn't arrived yet. Sera ran the plan through her mind again and again, worried. She'd been trying to hide it, but she was incredibly nervous. However, if Shinichi's plan went off without a hitch then she'd have the chance to kick the kidnapper and his accomplices right in their faces, which she was looking forward to.

It took almost an hour for the kidnappers to arrive. There was the first skinny guy they'd met before and another bulky guy that had a large duffel bag draped over one shoulder, which he dumped on the floor when they stopped moving. Both wore ski masks. As for the bag, it didn't take a genius to figure out what, or rather _who_ , was inside.

"Oh, so you kept your word," said the first kidnapper, glancing around anxiously. "You probably think I'm here to kill you or something, right? Well, I'm not. It's just a talk. Actually, it's a request. You solved my sister's suicide, and eventually I was convinced you were right. That's why I trust you. So anyways, you remember my sister's husband, right? He was the cause of all this, so I want to kill him. You find him for me, or you know what'll happen."

"So, let me get this straight," said Shinichi. "First you ransacked and stole something of value from a friend of mine, forcing her to find me when you could've just as easily have gotten her to find the guy you want. You even faked the whole SD card thing. And then you arranged for a meeting, but let me pick the location."

"Yeah, that's right," he said. "It's unpredictable. Nobody will…" He suddenly stopped talking, realizing the enormous mistake he'd made. "Torch the goods and run!" he shouted, preparing to flee. On cue, his bulky partner lit a cigarette lighter and held it close to the bag.

'No!' Sera thought. The situation had just gone from bad to worse, and she was done sitting around. Shinichi rubbed his ear as he prepared to unleash a soccer ball. "Yahhh!" Sera yelled, jumping out of the box and racing right at the big burly guy. Then she jumped and kicked him in the chest, knocking him over and away from the bag. At the same time, Shinichi kicked a soccer ball at the fleeing kidnapper, hitting him in the back and knocking the breath out of him. It all happened in less than ten seconds. As the ball rolled away and deflated, Sera opened up the bag. At the moment, she didn't care that she was supposed to be keeping a secret. After getting her room ransacked and nearly seeing the bag set on fire, she was stressed beyond belief. Now, with the kidnappers defeated, she could let it all out.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're safe!" Sera exclaimed, lifting the girl out of the bag and hugging her tightly. The girl was incredibly sweaty from being confined in the bag and seemed a little jumpy.

"You're squeezing me," she replied, although she seemed to be enjoying the hug. Then she tensed up as she noticed Shinichi looking at them. "You brought _him_?" she hissed.

"I didn't have a choice," said Sera. "He was the only one the kidnapper would talk to."

She freed herself from Sera's grip and walked away, stopping in front of Shinichi. Sera didn't interfere, preferring instead to enjoy the look of discomfort that was passing across Shinichi's face. "I suppose I'm in your debt. The girl trusts you, so it's probably about time I give you the benefit of the doubt as well. Now, how about that talk _Edogawa Conan-kun_?"

XXX

Several days later, Conan was still reeling from the aftereffects of the 'talk' he'd had. It had been made a little easier since when the fake little girl started talking to him, he'd suddenly remembered where he'd seen her before. That encounter had been years before, but he and Ran had indeed met them both before. He'd apparently made quite the impression on Sera, and that combined with having two super-smart brothers had encouraged her to become a detective.

He'd been shocked at first when the girl had called him by his alias name while he was back as himself, but considering she was so mature for supposedly only being middle school aged, it didn't take much imagination to figure out what had happened to her. She had expressed confusion about APTX-4869 though, so apparently she'd run into something else. She was pretty vague about what exactly had happened to her, though, so he didn't know much. In exchange for this, he'd left out Haibara's role in the APTX and just said he'd gotten some temporary antidotes when he'd raided one of their labs a while back.

"Conan-kun!" Ran said, breaking him out of his thoughts. He was walking with Ran to go get food, but he hadn't really been paying attention to what she was doing. "Conan-kun!" Ran said again.

"What is it, Ran-neechan?" Conan asked innocently.

"Which type of fish do you want?" Ran asked, pointing to two trays of fish. Conan didn't really care, but he picked the flounder to please Ran. Ran, smiling, paid for the fish. However, the smile seemed a little forced.

"Ran-neechan, are you OK?" Conan asked worriedly once they started moving again.

Ran stopped and lowered her head, her bangs obscuring her eyes. "It's…it's Shinichi," she said at last. "I'm worried that he might think badly of me."

'Huh? Why?' Conan thought. "Why do you think that, Ran-neechan?"

Ran kept quiet for a moment. "Call me crazy, but I think he might be avoiding me."

'WHAT?' Conan thought, stunned.

Before he could respond, Ran continued. "I'm not talking about him being gone all the time. I know he's busy working. But when he came back this last time, he just seemed…different. He disappeared that day after school and didn't tell anyone where he went. Then when he came back after solving that case with Sera-chan, he just seemed preoccupied, like something startling had happened to him. Then he went away later and I haven't heard from him since. Then there was that whole code thing that he and Sera-chan did."

'Ran…' Conan thought. 'This is bad. She's overthinking all of this. I need to cheer her up somehow.' "You don't need to worry about Shinichi-niichan, Ran-neechan!" said Conan. "He was probably just preoccupied with the case!"

"Yeah, you're probably right," said Ran, wiping tears from her eyes. "After all, that deduction geek _would_ put his case over me, wouldn't he?"

'Wow, she's really taking this hard,' Conan observed. 'I guess I'll just have to call her later to reassure her.' Ran still looked preoccupied, but Conan didn't really know what else he could say to cheer her up.

XXX

That evening, Conan tried to call Ran, but Sonoko called the apartment at about eight to report that a band they both liked was breaking up, which led to them talking about it for hours. Conan stayed up reading a Holmes novel, but the girls talked late into the night. 'You two just saw each other earlier today,' Conan thought after two hours of listening to them argue about which band the vocalist should join next or if he should go solo.

Kogoro eventually got annoyed listening to Ran go on and on about it, so he went in his room with a music player and shut the door. Oddly enough, he wasn't drunk. Then Conan realized he just had to call her cell as Shinichi to get her off the phone. Mentally chastising himself for now thinking of it earlier, he went out on the landing silently to make the call. Once outside and with voice changer in hand, he dialed the number. Surprisingly, he didn't get an answer. Rather than leaving a voicemail, he ended the call and went back inside to figure out what the trouble was.

Ran was still busy chatting with Sonoko, but her cell phone was nowhere to be found. It wasn't in her pocket or on the table. The only other place it could be was Ran's room, so Conan slipped open the door and looked around. Sure enough, there it was on her desk along with her homework, which was odd since Ran always had the thing in arm's reach. With Ran in the other room, there was no way she could hear it so Conan took it back into the main room and put it on the table. Then he went back out on the landing and called again. He left the door open a crack to see Ran's reaction.

There was a scuffling from inside the room as Ran checked the phone. "Shinichi's calling me," she announced to Sonoko. Sonoko said something on the other phone, probably encouraging Ran to answer her cell, but Ran seemed hesitant. "Sonoko, normally I would, but, well, I…" She started stuttering, not really answering Sonoko or making any sense. The phone went to voicemail again, so Conan just shut off his phone and went back inside. Something must have happened to Ran to make her act like this, and he was determined to find out what.

He picked up the phone in another room to listen in on their conversation and see if Sonoko would inadvertently say something while trying to reason with Ran. "Ran! What are you doing?" Sonoko exclaimed. "Don't tell me you don't like him anymore!"

"No, it's not that," said Ran quietly. "It's just that I'm, well, oh how do I put this? It's just a feeling I have that something's not right with Shinichi. That's all I can really say."

"So, what? Do you think he's cheating on you or something?" Sonoko asked, in a much more caring tone than earlier.

"What do you mean 'cheating'?" Ran replied hotly. "It's not like we're dating or anything! It's just a feeling that he's either hiding things from me, or doing things behind my back, or…I don't know. I can't really explain it."

"Ran…" said Sonoko quietly. "Well, no matter what you feel, you won't solve anything by giving him the cold shoulder. You need to talk to him."

"Yeah, I guess I should," said Ran quietly. Her heart didn't seem in it, though.

"RAN!" said Sonoko loudly. "If you keep being indecisive like this, Shinichi-kun will forget you and go after someone else! Be strong girl! Talk to him and sort this out!"

Ran muttered something in response before hanging up abruptly. However, Conan's phone didn't ring again. 'Is she really taking this that badly?' Conan thought, peering into the main room where Ran was sitting at the table crying, her face buried in her hands. Conan was stunned by how she was acting. If Ran wasn't willing to talk to him, he'd have to come up with another method, but he was just about out of ideas.

"Ran-neechan!" Conan said, walking into the room and acting alarmed when he saw her. "Are you OK?"

"Oh, Conan-kun," said Ran, looking up. "No, I'm OK," she said more firmly, wiping her eyes. "I was just thinking about some things is all. Especially about Shinichi."

"Why, did Shinichi-niichan do something mean?"

Ran shook her head firmly. "No, it's not that. Well, I don't think so, anyways. How do I put this? I've been having some doubts lately and I don't really understand _why_. It's this feeling that I just can't shake that Shinichi is hiding something from me. I know, it sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? After all, Shinichi has always been hiding things from me, so why have I only started to feel this now? Until I get my feelings settled, I just can't face Shinichi or even talk to him."

'Ran…' Conan thought sadly. He felt like he had to do something to cheer her up, but he didn't know what. Something was obviously eating at her, but she wasn't really making much sense when she tried to explain it.

"Maybe I should just sleep on it," said Ran suddenly, getting up and going into her room, not allowing Conan to suggest anything more.

* * *

So, was that worth waiting for? Or was it a bit lame? I struggled for a while with getting his motivations straightened out and justify his odd actions.

I've got several points to address this time:

\- First is the identity of the mystery girl. As I said earlier, her true identity and motivations haven't been revealed as of this writing, so that's why the whole explanation portion happens off screen. I'm planning to update this portion (and put in her name) once both of these things have been undoubtedly confirmed by the manga. It's not really important to the overall narrative of this story, though; it just shows that Sera and Conan now trust each other more.

-Second is Ran's odd behavior. I've been hinting at this for a while, and I've got a good explanation for it. One theory floating around the fandom is that the reason that Ran never responded to Shinichi's London confession is that she has subconscious doubts about his identity that's preventing her from saying anything. Whether this is actually true or not in the manga, in this story it is, and these doubts of hers started surfacing when Shinichi appeared again. The events of the story after that only made this worse. Now her emotions are starting to spiral out of control. Since it may technically be canon, it's one of the exceptions to my rule of 'only use canon personalities'.

OK, so coming up next chapter is a massive whammy, which I've been blatantly hinting about for a while and shouldn't surprise anyone that it'll happen. The surprise is _how_ it happens. There's also a POV from a character whose thoughts we haven't seen yet. Any guesses on who it is?

Oh, and don't forget to leave a favorite and a review if you're enjoying this story. :)


	10. Comforting Ran?

And so the much-hyped chapter ten comes around. Hopefully I won't let anybody down. I didn't get any response whatsoever about the last chapter, so I have absolutely no clue whether I'm doing OK or not. Although since I haven't really gotten any flames yet, I can assume I'm doing all right at least. :P

* * *

Chapter Ten

Sonoko hadn't slept much since she'd been worried about Ran. The next day, she grew even more worried when she saw how depressed Ran was. She'd seen her depressed before about Shinichi, but never this bad. Sonoko tried making conversation several times, but Ran just wasn't in the mood for talking to anyone. 'I've got to fix this,' Sonoko thought.

Her chance came later. During gym class, she stepped aside out of sight of the teacher and called Shinichi to try to make sense of what was going on. After all, she couldn't help her friend without knowing what had really happened. The phone rang several times, but nobody picked up. So when she got the option to leave a message, she took it. "Kudo-kun," she began, "I don't know if you know this or not, but Ran's been acting odd lately, and I'm really worried about her. So if something happened between you two, you'd BETTER tell me about it!" She'd started shouting at that last part, but she didn't feel bad about it in the slightest. That way Shinichi would know to come back to Ran and help her back to normal.

Sonoko didn't get a response until after school. As she was walking home with Ran and Sera, her phone rang. She took one look at the caller ID and her face blanched. "Oh, is that your boyfriend?" Sera asked curiously, noticing her reaction.

"Oh, well…" Sonoko stuttered awkwardly. With the way Ran was feeling right now, she might shut off the call if Sonoko answered the phone right there and then. She made a hasty excuse and darted down a side street before answering. "Kudo-kun?" she asked quietly, suddenly feeling nervous.

"Yeah, I got your message," said Shinichi. "What happened?"

"That's what I'm asking YOU!" Sonoko shouted. "Ran was fine until your last visit, but then she just started acting weird and depressed. You did something to her, didn't you, Kudo-kun?"

"Oi oi!" said Shinichi. "Why do you think it's my fault?"

"Because it's always you, Kudo-kun! Ran's always wondering about you, and it always makes her start crying. So just give up on your case and come home NOW! Think of your wife, Kudo-kun!"

"She's not my wife! It's not like that!" Shinichi protested. "And I can't just give up on this case I'm on. Just get Ran to answer the phone so I can talk to her."

"You don't get it, do you Kudo-kun?" Sonoko shouted. "She doesn't want to talk to you! The reason I called you is to get you to come talk to your wife in _person_ and fix this! So do something about it and quit making excuses!"

Shinichi didn't say anything to that, like he was pondering what to say. Sonoko was pretty fed up with him by now. It was like he didn't _want_ to show up again. Even if Ran would pick up the phone and talk to him, he needed to talk to her face to face, which he was practically insisting he wasn't going to do. So Sonoko decided to pull her trump card. If this didn't get him to get his act together and come home, nothing would.

"How about this, then, Kudo-kun?" she asked softly, trying to mask her anger. "If you don't do something to help cheer Ran up in two days, then I'm going to get her to date someone else. How's that?" Still angry, she ended the call. 'If that doesn't solve the problem, nothing will,' she thought. She may not have really approved of his and Ran's relationship, but she was willing to accept it if it meant Ran wouldn't be depressed anymore.

XXX

Haibara was busy talking with the kids when Conan caught up with them. Well, the kids were talking; Haibara was mostly just listening. He'd gotten a call from Sonoko in the middle of class, but he hadn't been able to answer until after school let out. "So? What did the rich girl want?" Haibara asked.

Conan looked panicky again. "Well, she yelled at me a lot. That was the main thing. But then she said, 'Kudo-kun, if you don't apologize to Ran in two days, I'm helping her find another guy."

"I see," said Haibara. "You want another pill so that won't happen. Well, it's not like I don't sympathize with your situation, but you've already turned back twice in the last ten days. If you keep pressing your luck like this, you're going to slip up." 'Plus I'm still mad because you forced me to give you a pill last time,' she added silently.

"C'mon Haibara," Conan begged.

Haibara tried to ignore him, but he wouldn't let up. "Kudo-kun!" she said eventually, raising her voice slightly. Luckily she caught herself before she started yelling and the kids noticed. "How about this, Kudo-kun?" she said calmly, keeping an eye on them. "You still owe me for letting you take that pill to help out that girl detective. You're not in any positions to be asking for favors." He actually was, since he'd saved her hide more than once, but she knew he wouldn't think of that. "However, I'll give you the pill if you can do _me_ a favor."

Conan's eyes widened in surprise. "What kind of favor?"

"Oh, I don't know. You're a detective, aren't you? Why don't you think of something, meitantei-san?"

She actually did have something in mind, but with all the crap Conan was going through, she didn't feel right asking. It would've been an incredibly selfish thing to ask.

"It's _Kamen Yaiba_!" Genta suddenly shouted, pointing to the window of a toy store. Mitsuhiko and Ayumi ran up and pressed their faces to the glass before chatting animatedly about the toys.

'Those kids…' Haibara thought fondly. The kids might always be getting into trouble, but she wouldn't have traded her time with them for anything.

"So, Haibara," said Conan. "Were you serious about that favor?"

"Oh, did you get an idea?" she asked, smirking.

"Maybe," he said, heading into the store.

"Conan-kun!" said Ayumi in surprise. "Where are you going?" The kids quickly followed Conan inside, leaving Haibara out on the sidewalk.

'Just what are you thinking, Kudo-kun?' she thought, following them in.

She soon found out. After heading inside, she stood with the kids while Conan walked around looking at the merchandise. Then he bought four items: a bag of gummies for Genta, a science book for Mitsuhiko, a _Kamen Yaiba_ ribbon for Ayumi, and a keychain for Haibara.

"Conan-kun?" said Mitsuhiko, looking at the book. "Why are you doing this?"

"Oh, I just felt like it," Conan lied.

'Fool,' Haibara thought, looking at the keychain. 'You just don't get it, do you?' However, she couldn't exactly say no at this point, so she wordlessly got a pill out of her bag and passed it over. 'He'd better not make me regret this,' she thought. Then she sighed inwardly. 'I'm so pathetic, aren't I?'

XXX

Shinichi had wasted no time in taking the antidote and coming back to himself. 'Wait for me, Ran,' he thought as he ran towards the detective agency. He nearly ran over Sonoko, who looked deep in thought and barely noticed him.

"Ran!" Shinichi shouted, opening the door to the office. However, Ran wasn't there. The only person who was there was Kogoro, who dropped what he was doing the instant he saw Shinichi.

"YOU," he said, getting up and approaching him. Shinichi had the urge to flee, but he couldn't bail out now if he hoped to see Ran. "Ran's been acting funny the past few days because of you. Now, you are going to go up and apologize to Ran. Now." He sounded so dangerous that Shinichi didn't dare say a word out of fear that Kogoro would think he was contradicting him. He just nodded.

Kogoro led him out of the office and up the stairs. When they reached the apartment level, they found Ran in her room staring out the window.

'Ran…' Shinichi thought sadly. "Ran, what's wrong?" he asked, trying to break the ice.

Ran turned around and stared at him, her eyes full of tears. "Shinichi…" she breathed. Then she ran and hugged him. "Oh, Shinichi!" she bawled. Kogoro didn't look happy about how close they were, but he didn't interfere. Instead he stood just outside the door, close enough to keep an eye on the situation, but far enough away that the two had a bit of privacy. "I'm sorry Shinichi," she said. "I haven't been fair to you lately. It's just that I've been having these doubts. They've been building up subconsciously for a while now, I think."

"Doubts? About what?"

Ran let him go and sat down on the bed. "About several things, actually. I feel really badly about it, too, because I know it's stupid. But I can't get them out of my head. I just can't shake the thought that either you're lying to me all the time, or Conan-kun just seems too much like you, or you have a secret girlfriend somewhere. I know, it's crazy, right?"

Shinichi didn't really know what to say. "You're not crazy, Ran. You're just over…"

"So you're saying that I'm _right_ to doubt you?" Ran interrupted suddenly. Shinichi realized too late that by saying she wasn't crazy, he had indirectly confirmed her false suspicions. "So you _are_ keeping secrets from me? Like a secret girlfriend somewhere?" At this point, she had gotten up off the bed and was staring at him with a look of absolute rage. He'd seen her mad at him before, but that had been more playful. The look she was giving him now was one of absolute hate.

"Uh, that's not what I…" Shinichi began, but he got interrupted again.

"GET OUT!" Ran shouted, taking in a deep breath in preparation to use her karate. Shinichi didn't want to leave, so he did his best to dodge Ran's attacks, all the while being pushed out the door. "You _cheater_! You _liar_!" Ran shouted, taking more swipes as tears started flowing down her face. She got so caught up in her emotions she didn't even realize that none of her blows were connecting.

"If you'd just let me explain…" Shinichi said, still backing up. Soon he'd been forced out of the room.

"Ran said leave, so you'd better leave," said Kogoro, who was trembling in rage. He made to grab Shinichi for a judo throw, which finally was the last straw. With both of them gunning for him, Shinichi turned and bolted. "And don't come back!" Kogoro yelled down the stairs, slamming the door.

* * *

Just to get this out of the way: I feel REALLY bad for Ran this chapter. I was actually having trouble with splitting them up because those two aren't exactly the split-up forever type. But after getting chased out, Shinichi's going to have to do a lot to get Ran to like him again. Or maybe he'll have to start with somebody else. Either route will not be easy.

Oh, and I put in the AiCon moment because I ship them normally (any other ships I write are me branching out). It doesn't distract, does it?

OK, so this story is approximately half done. In my mind, I've got it split up in four arcs of five chapters each: 1. Sera's 'boyfriend', 2. The Kidnapping/Ran's Doubts, 3. Trying to Patch Things Up, and 4. The Finale - ShinSera. For the next 'arc', I'm going to introduce a lot of new characters that haven't been seen yet. There are going to be three-five semi-recurring canon characters and two OCs. I hope you enjoy it, and let me know if there's anybody specific you want to show up.

And don't forget to leave a favorite and a review if you're enjoying this! :)


	11. Guilty Feelings

And here comes the aftermath, in which both Conan and Ran are complete wrecks and everybody else has to prop them up. And the first OC character I talked about makes his debut!

* * *

Chapter Eleven

Sera ended up going to school the next day by herself. They'd had to change hotels again due to their room being under police investigation, but unfortunately the kidnapping had made a certain someone extremely paranoid.

When Sera got to school, the students were talking feverishly about something other than Sera for once. Unfortunately, that something was Shinichi and Ran.

"Did you hear? They broke up last night!" the rumors said. They were just rumors, but considering what she knew was going on, Sera was curious whether they were true or exaggerated.

Ran wasn't at school, but Sonoko was. "How'd they find out?" Sonoko remarked irritably. "Ran barely got up the nerve to tell me!"

Sera suddenly felt the rather selfish emotion of happiness before she shut it down immediately. 'No! Don't think like that!' she reprimanded herself. "Maybe someone saw Kudo-kun and her arguing," Sera suggested to Sonoko.

"You know what? It doesn't matter!" said Sonoko firmly. "What we need to do is help Ran get over this!"

"Yeah, sure," said Sera, feeling determined. If the rumors _were_ true about Ran chasing Shinichi out, something extraordinarily bad must have happened. But what could it have been? Ran was usually so tolerant of Shinichi doing whatever he wanted as long as she knew he was safe. But then again, she _had_ been acting oddly ever since the kidnapping case. She didn't understand what was going on, but she was determined to help her friend in whatever way she could. "If we're going to help, we need to stage a two-front assault," said Sera, taking a piece of paper and outlining her plan. "You're the closest to Ran-chan, so try to get her to open up, or at least try to console her. I'll go find Shinichi-kun and tell him off for being so mean to her."

Sera figured that was the best way to settle the situation. Ran needed emotional support, and she figured Conan would too. It was probably just a big misunderstanding.

"You called him 'Shinichi-kun' just now, didn't you?" Sonoko said suddenly, which made Sera flinch. She looked at Sera suspiciously.

"Sorry," she apologized. "I guess I'm just worried."

Sonoko dropped the subject, which was a bit surprising, but Sera just chalked it up as her being worried about Ran.

XXX

That afternoon, Sera made a beeline for Professor Agasa's house. She figured Conan would be there because he wouldn't want to go back to the Detective Agency for the time being. Sure enough, when she knocked on the door, he was the one who answered it. "You want something?" he asked, sounding depressed.

"I thought I'd check up on you," said Sera. "Do you want to go for a walk? The fresh air might make you feel better."

Conan shrugged, but he put on his shoes and came out. At least that was something. They walked down the street in silence for a few minutes before Sera broached the topic. "So, how badly did you screw up?"

"Considering she and the old man chased me out of the apartment, you take a guess," said Conan irritably. "I was trying to console her, but it had the opposite effect. Now I've effectively screwed myself out of ever getting in her good graces again."

Sera felt sorry for him, but she didn't really know what to say. Emotions weren't exactly her strong suit. "Ran-chan will calm down eventually, Kudo-kun. You can try again then. Or you could just tell her the truth and hope for forgiveness."

"Not right now I can't," said Conan darkly. "She thinks I've been lying to her about some other things, so telling her now would just cause more problems."

"So you think Ran-chan will forgive you?" Sera asked.

"Hopefully. But she's never gotten this upset before, so there's really no way to tell."

"And what if she doesn't? What then?" Sera phrased the question innocently enough, but she was actually kind of curious what he would say, moreso than one would expect. 'Stupid, what are you thinking?' she thought, mentally chastising herself.

"Well, I guess I'll have to let her go on with her life," said Conan sadly.

"It's too bad you're stuck like that, though," said Sera, unconsciously becoming cheeky again. "You won't be able to get another girlfriend for a _long_ while."

That got Conan's attention. "What do you mean 'another'? We weren't even…well…"

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up," said Sera, facepalming. "It's too soon to worry about that, isn't it?"

Conan said nothing. They walked in silence for a minute before he suddenly asked, "Why are you helping me so much?"

'Geh,' Sera thought, panicking slightly. "It's because Ran-chan is my friend and I'm trying to keep things from going from bad to worse. Besides, I know you well enough to know you didn't do anything to her on purpose, so I figured you'd need a pick-me-up. You've just been lounging around all day, right?" Conan was quiet again, which Sera took as confirmation. They had been walking for about ten minutes and had just turned onto the street where the Detective Agency was. "Now, I know you're feeling down right now, but Ran-chan is feeling bad too, so you should go see her and cheer her up. She's not mad at you as you look right now, so it ought to be safe."

Conan looked up at the stairs, as if feeling hesitant. Sera still felt really bad for him, but she didn't really want to get too involved with all the drama. She was afraid she'd follow his lead and say something stupid to make him hate her. Conan steeled himself before heading upstairs. Sera didn't follow him, opting instead to head to Café Poirot for a coffee to calm her nerves.

"Welcome, Sera-san!" Azusa said when Sera entered. It was the first time Sera had been in there, but she figured Ran had told Azusa about her. Or maybe Kogoro. They both visited a lot.

Sera took a seat at one of the booths and ordered the drink. "By the way," she asked Azusa, "is Amuro-san working today?"

"No, he took a leave of absence," Azusa replied. "I can let him know you were looking for him when he comes back if you'd like."

"I appreciate it, but you don't have to do that," said Sera, smiling. Azusa smiled back and went to get the coffee. 'So he's not here the one day I actually come in here?' Sera thought. 'I wonder why.'

XXX

Conan knew Sera was right about Ran holding a grudge against Shinichi, not Conan, but he still felt nervous when he walked in. Ran sat at the table on the third floor in her pajamas, talking quietly with Sonoko. However, the conversation stopped instantly the moment the two girls saw him. Conan stood near the door, ready to flee at the first sign of trouble.

Then Ran jumped up and ran to hug him, bawling her eyes out. Conan just stood there silently letting her cry it all out. After a few minutes of this, Conan got up the courage to ask, "Ran-neechan, what exactly did he _do_ to you?"

Ran started, then rubbed tears out of her eyes. "It's nothing for you to worry about, Conan-kun. Shinichi and I just had a little…disagreement." Behind Ran, Sonoko was looking at them with an unknown expression on her face. Saying this to Conan seemed to make Ran feel better, because then she said, "How about I go get dressed so we can all go out somewhere?" Then she walked right past a stunned Sonoko and went into her room.

With Ran gone, Sonoko turned on Conan. "Hey, brat!" she said, stopping in front of him. "I've been trying to get Ran to open up for over half an hour, and she just spills everything to you the minute you walk in the door. What's your secret?"

'It's probably because of who I remind her of,' Conan thought, not daring to speak his thoughts aloud. Instead he just shrugged. They sat in silence for another ten minutes until Ran emerged. But then she went in the bathroom to fix her hair and makeup.

Eventually, Ran was ready to go. "So, any ideas?" Ran asked Sonoko, grabbing her purse.

Sonoko was, of course, more than happy to oblige. "What about a movie?" she suggested. "There's a showing of _The_ _Return of Mothman_ starting soon."

"Oh, is that a superhero thing?" Ran asked.

"Just you wait and see!" said Sonoko, grinning. Conan, listening in, had a bad feeling that Sonoko was up to something.

He was soon proven right. When they arrived at the theater, he saw that it was a monster movie, which Ran hated because she was so scared of supernatural stuff. "You want me to go in _there_?" Ran asked in horror, looking at the movie poster.

"It's not that bad," Sonoko reassured her. "Think of this way: it's not vampires or zombies."

"I…I guess you're right," said Ran. While still hesitant, she approached the counter and bought a ticket. Unfortunately, the cashier wouldn't give Conan a ticket because that particular theater had a policy of not allowing little kids to see violent movies. Ran saw this as an excuse to take Conan home and avoid the movie, but Sonoko had a 'talk' with the manager, which involved a lot of shouting and reminding him that her family owned the theater, and soon enough the manager made an exception and let Conan go in.

They had arrived a little early for the movie, so Ran and Sonoko chatted among themselves. But then they were interrupted by someone saying, "Oh, what are you doing here?"

"Sera-chan!" said Ran, spinning her head around to look at her.

'What's she doing here?' Conan thought. Then he made eye contact with a certain middle school aged-looking girl that seemed to be bored.

"I just thought Ran would like getting out of her room," Sonoko explained. "But what are you doing here?"

"Same reason as you, I guess," said Sera. "By the way, about that thing earlier…" She leaned down and whispered something in Sonoko's ear. A mixture of relief and anger passed over Sonoko's face.

"Oh, so that's how it was! Thank you, Sera-chan!"

"What was that about?" Ran asked as Sera returned to her seat.

"Nothing much. I just asked her to look into something about one of the staff at home. Someone's been stealing silverware. Sera-chan was just telling me that it was someone else."

'Really, silverware?' Conan thought. 'What an obvious lie. With the money her family has, they could afford to replace any stolen silverware. Or they could just beef up security.'

They didn't have time to talk anymore after that, because that was when the movie started.

XXX

Once the movie was over, Sera joined her friends outside. "That was a fun movie, wasn't it?" she remarked happily. "I especially liked the scene where they were driving across the bridge and the mothman just dropped on their car from out of nowhere."

"Really?" Sonoko asked. "I thought the part at the school where he was swooping through the hallways was creepier. You never knew where he was going to come from!" She grabbed Ran by the arm suddenly, making her scream in terror.

"Come on, Sonoko!" Ran complained, shaking her loose. "You know how I feel about things like this!"

"Do you see what Sonoko-chan did now?" Sera whispered to Conan. Conan didn't, so he shook his head. "She deliberately took Ran-chan to see a movie she knew would scare her in order to take her mind off of _you_. She might have nightmares about it, but once she gets over the movie, she'll hopefully have forgotten how mad she is at you, and will probably be willing to reconcile. Smart, huh?"

"Well, I guess we'll see if your plan actually works out in the end, then," said Conan.

"Oh, it's not _my_ plan," said Sera, shaking her head. "My only plan was for her to talk to Ran-chan and for me to talk to you to find out just what had happened. The whole movie theater plan was Sonoko-chan's." 'Besides, I'm no good at this mushy stuff,' Sera added silently. She felt a suspicious glare coming from her other side and flinched; that girl knew her _very_ well and could generally tell what she was thinking. However, _she_ wasn't an open book. She'd even pretended to be incredibly shy in order to avoid talking to Ran and Sonoko.

Suddenly a man rushed past from behind them and stole Ran's purse, cutting the strap with a knife. "Stop him!" Sonoko shouted as the man raced off. They all started pursuing, but just as quickly, a young guy that had been approaching them suddenly punched the loser in the face, making him drop the purse. The hero snatched the purse before it hit the ground and it was all the snatcher could do to gather himself and race off. But the young man prevented this by tripping the snatcher, making him hit his head on a pole and fall unconscious.

"Is this yours?" the guy asked, offering the purse to Ran. He was in his late teens, with short wavy hair and a muscular build. He was pretty tall, too, not to mention handsome.

"Oh, yes," said Ran, taking it back. "Thanks for the help, Mr…"

"Tsukumo. Tsukumo Masato." The guy, Masato, looked Ran right in the eyes as he introduced himself, smiling gently.

Sonoko was looking at the guy with her typical 'OMG it's a hot guy!' face while even Sera felt some sort of twinge in her heart. The guy was handsome, she admitted, but there was something in his demeanor that betrayed an air of both cockiness and kindness at the same time. She glanced at Conan, who was looking back and forth between Ran and Masato with a perplexed expression.

"Well, thank you again," said Ran, breaking eye contact. There was a twinge of red in her cheeks that did not go unnoticed by Conan. He looked ready to blow his stack.

"It's no problem," said Masato. "If you'd like, I know someone who will replace the strap for you. It's in Beika at the corner of…" He pulled out a notebook and wrote the address down before tearing the page out and giving it to Ran. "Just tell them I sent you and they won't charge you for it."

"Thank you very much!" said Ran, looking surprised but happy. With that, Masato bowed once and left.

"Whoa!" Sonoko exclaimed, watching him leave. "I wonder who he is? He's so helpful, but modest! He's kind of like Makoto-san!" When she mentioned Makoto, her face took on a dreamy expression.

"He seems trustworthy enough," said Ran. "Maybe I should take him up on his offer." At this, Conan's face had taken on a horrified expression.

* * *

Jealous Conan is always funny to see. XD You may recognize the name 'Masato-kun' from my story _Conan's Valentine_ where Ran gets another boyfriend. I don't know if this is same character or not, but I reused the name anyway. Hopefully he doesn't seem like a male Mary Sue, but if he or another OC does please let me know immediately so I can fix the issues.

Actual Conan characters that haven't appeared yet will show up next chapter, so look forward to it! And thanks for reading! ;)


	12. Investigation and Teasing

More jealous Conan ahead! XD I edited this chapter so many times to try make Masato seem more 'normal' and less like an infallible man who can do no wrong. The next chapter had this problem, too. I'll let you be the judge of whether I did a good job or not on that.

As promised, a new character shows up this time. I wonder who it is? ;)

To the guest reviewer that I can't reply to directly: thank you for the compliment! I'm trying my best on it!

To everyone else, I may not reply to reviews immediately, but I'll get to you eventually! So expect a response from me if you leave one!

* * *

Chapter Twelve

'There's something fishy about this,' Conan thought as the five of them reached the location that Masato guy had given them. It was a small store that specialized in leather goods. Ran hesitated a moment before going inside.

"Welcome!" a middle-aged woman behind the counter said as they walked in.

Ran hesitated again before striding purposefully up to the counter. "Yes, I'd like this fixed, please," she said, showing the woman the cut strap. Masato-kun recommended you."

"Oh, are you friends of his?" the woman asked, her attitude changing at once from mild interest to being overly friendly.

"You could say that," said Sonoko.

"Well any friends of his are friends of mine. He's close friends with my children, so I know him well. My daughter Maya is especially fond of him. He doesn't really seem to be interested in her, or any girls for that matter, though."

'So that's how he knows this store,' Conan thought. 'For a moment there I thought the whole thing was a setup to get Ran's affections, but I guess not. Unless they're all in this together.' He realized he was having crazy thoughts, so he shook himself. 'No, this isn't the time to be thinking like a detective!'

"Now," the woman continued, "Let's see what the problem is." She held out a hand and Ran handed over her purse after dumping all the valuables into a plastic shopping bag Sonoko provided. "Oh, this isn't too bad," she said, looking over the cut. "Would you like the strap to just be patched, or would you like it replaced?"

"She wants it replaced, of course!" Sonoko interjected. "Why would she walk around with a big leather patch on it?"

"Oh, of course!" said the woman, removing the strap from the main body of the purse. "Well, why don't you look around and find a strap you like? Don't worry about the color; I'll dye it the color of your purse in the back."

Ran looked around for a few minutes before deciding on one and passing it over. The strap she'd picked was white, but not the same white as her purse. "I'll take this one, please," she told the woman.

"It'll be about twenty minutes, dear," she said. "You and friends are welcome to look around while I work."

The woman took the strap and the purse into the back, leaving them to look around the store for the first time. It was full of homemade leather bags, pockets, and other things.

"She's talented," Sonoko admitted, looking at a small bag. "They're not that fashionable, though."

Conan wasn't really looking at anything. He was still thinking about both Masato's timely appearance and how much Ran seemed to be taking his advice. It was like Dr. Araide all over again. At least that had been a misunderstanding. What if he was just overthinking this, too? Even if he was, he wasn't going to back down until he was sure everything was normal.

"I see somebody's jealous," Sera teased him, whispering so no one else would hear. "I guess Sonoko-chan's plan worked a little too well."

"Is that what this is?" Conan asked.

"Who knows?" she replied. "She may be trying to get back at you by expressing interest in someone else. Or maybe she genuinely likes the guy. It's too early to tell at this point. Before you do anything rash, I suggest you wait and see what happens first."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Conan said, annoyed.

"It means you're a guy, of course. Guys do crazy things when they get jealous!" At this last point, she reached down and hugged him. "That applies to girls too, of course!"

Conan was very surprised about the hug. 'By get jealous, does she mean..'

"Just kidding!" said Sera, letting Conan go and standing back up. "Girls aren't likely to fly into a rage when they get jealous. Don't you know that?"

'Actually, they do,' thought Conan. 'You're a detective, and you've run into plenty of cases where a jealous woman was the culprit.'

Sera was distracted from responding further by a death glare coming from her 'friend'. Well, considering who the girl was, it wasn't surprising that she was a little overprotective.

Twenty minutes later, the owner returned with the purse, which had a new strap. It was the same cream color as the purse, which meant that it didn't really stand out as being added on later. "And here you go, miss!" she said, handing it back. "Say 'hi' to Masato-kun if you see him again! And since you're his friends, I won't charge you this time."

"Oh, thank you!" said Ran in surprise, looking over the bag's new strap. It was a slightly different style than the original, but it didn't stand out unless you were really fashion-savvy.

To repay the woman for the free service, both Sera and Sonoko bought small leather coin purses before they left. "Wow, this is actually pretty nice," said Sonoko. "I wonder what dyes she used."

"Here," said Sera, giving her coin purse to her 'friend'. "You like these sorts of things, right?" The girl just looked at her silently before taking it. She kept looking suspiciously between Sera and Conan, although Conan didn't really understand why.

"Oh!" Sonoko exclaimed suddenly. "I just remembered where I saw Masato-san before! He used to play baseball for Beika High before he graduated."

"Why didn't you mention that earlier?" Ran asked, exasperated. "You should've mentioned you recognized him."

"Well, I didn't remember _where_ then, and plus he was so handsome I couldn't speak!" Her face took on a dreamy expression again. "You think so too, right Ran?"

"Eh?" Ran exclaimed. "What are you saying, Sonoko?"

"Well, the way I see it, you're free now, so why not try for him?"

'OI OI!' Conan thought. 'This is getting dangerous!' To distract from the conversation, he purposely pretended to trip, falling down hard on the sidewalk.

"Conan-kun!" said Ran, instantly forgetting the conversation. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," he said, standing up and rubbing his knee. Sonoko was looking at him suspiciously while Sera was fighting the urge to laugh.

XXX

A few days later, Yukiko Kudo stood outside her house, having just arrived back in Beika. She'd raced back at once after hearing about Shinichi and Ran's argument. She'd been anticipating having Ran for a daughter-in-law for years, so she was curious as to what exactly had happened. It would've taken a LOT to break those two up. After dropping her bags off at the house, she headed next door to Professor Agasa's to do some digging.

"Oh, Yukiko-san!" said Agasa as soon as he opened the door. "You're back in town?"

"I thought I'd drop by for a few days," said Yukiko, coming inside. "How's Shin-chan?"

"He's sulking," said Agasa, "but he's doing better than I'd have expected. Ai-kun says it's because that girl detective hasn't been letting him mope."

"Ai-chan says that?" said Yukiko in surprise, looking at the girl, who was reading a magazine while listening to music and wasn't paying them any attention. "Is the girl detective named…Sera-san?"

"Yeah, she is," said Agasa. "By the way, Yukiko-san, would you like some tea?"

"Oh, of course!" said Yukiko politely, taking a seat across from Haibara. The girl glanced up at her before going back to her magazine. She had an odd look on her face, something Yukiko couldn't identify, although based on recent events, she had a guess. "Ai-chan!" she said, waving at her gently to get her attention.

It took a minute, but eventually Haibara pulled out her earbuds. "Yukiko-san," she said simply.

"How have you been holding up?" she asked, easing her way in.

"I don't know what you mean," said Haibara.

"Well that organization that was after you thinks you're dead now, right? Isn't that a load off?"

Haibara started. "Yes, I suppose so."

'What was that reaction?' Yukiko thought. 'It didn't seem to be fearful or anything. So did she think I was talking about something else?' There was, of course, only reason she suspected the girl would act that way. "Is there something bugging you, Ai-chan? You seem distant."

There was no mistaking her reaction this time. "No, of course not," said Haibara, pointedly not looking at her while her cheeks got a slight reddish tinge.

'Wow, this is really affecting her,' thought Yukiko. 'Maybe talking about it will help her feel better.' "It's Shin-chan, isn't it?" she said suddenly.

Haibara's reaction was instant, producing an instant change in demeanor. It was like someone had dropped a tub of cold water on her. Yukiko knew the girl took care to hide her emotions, which is why she knew something was up.

"I thought so," said Yukiko, after Haibara didn't respond. "Don't worry; I won't tell him anything. But what's the problem, exactly?"

More silence. She didn't particularly like putting the girl on the spot, but she was worried about Shinichi and so she needed information. Besides that, she had also taken a bit of an interest in Haibara as well. Then Haibara said one word, "Sera."

'Oh, so I was right,' Yukiko thought. That was the second time Sera had been brought up since she'd entered the house. She made a mental note to talk to Sera as soon as possible.

"Did Sera-chan do something?" Yukiko asked kindly. She knew she was pushing her luck expecting Haibara to keep talking.

"They're just…really close is all," she said in a low tone.

'Is that really all it is?' Yukiko thought knowingly. She felt bad for the girl sitting across from her, but there wasn't really anything she could do. Professor Agasa returned with a tray of teacups, so she started a conversation with him. "So, how have you been Agasa-hakase?"

"I'm doing well!" said Agasa proudly. "I'm shopping around some designs to some toy companies and I'm really hopeful they'll bite! Ai-kun helped with making them look kid-friendly while I handled the mechanical aspects."

"What is it, then?" Yukiko asked interestedly.

"It's a repurposed remote controlled quadcopter," Haibara butted in. "I suggested he make a normal helicopter with JSDF livery, but he wanted to use the quadcopter, so we made it a cargo helicopter."

"Oh, how neat!" said Yukiko. "But will kids really buy a giant model helicopter?"

"That's what I said," said Haibara, looking at Agasa, whose face had taken on a sheepish expression "There are already a lot of copters like that on the market already, so Hakase needs to come up with some other gimmick if he wants them to bite. By the way, Yukiko-san, didn't you want to talk to Kudo-kun today?"

Yukiko hadn't mentioned that to her, but she was right. "Oh, look at the time!" she exclaimed, jumping up. "It'll be dark soon! Thank you for the tea, Hakase!" With that she stood up and left, heading outside.

XXX

"Therefore, the culprit is YOU, Yamagata-san!" Conan announced through his bowtie, indicating the culprit. He, Ran, and Kogoro had gone out to eat, but on their way to the restaurant, they'd discovered a hit and run victim. Conan had noticed immediately that the culprit had run over the man twice, which meant it was a deliberate murder and therefore the culprit was someone the victim knew that had a grudge. Conan had seen immediately the culprit was the man Yamagata, a coworker of the victim, and had put Kogoro to sleep to prove it. He had just finished explaining his deductions to the cops.

"He…found out about the affair I had five years ago and was blackmailing me," Yamagata said, slumping his head. "It was just one time, but he somehow got ahold of the hotel's security footage and was threatening to show it to my wife! I didn't know what else to do!"

"We'll hear the rest down at the station," said Megure, motioning for Takagi to handcuff the suspect and take him away.

Kogoro yawned widely, sniffling a little in the evening air. "That's so sad," said Ran, looking at the culprit. "He made one mistake and his life was ruined."

Conan looked at Ran hopefully, hoping she'd catch the irony in what she'd just said.

"Well, a mistake is a mistake," said Kogoro gruffly, heading for the street. "Maybe we can still make it for dinner!" he said hopefully, checking the time.

When they were leaving the scene, Conan suddenly felt a stare on his back. Looking around, he noticed a slender woman with long hair and wearing shades looking at him. It was almost dark, so the shades stood out. "Isn't that…Shinichi's mother?" Ran said, following his gaze. Kogoro, not noticing their distraction, had gone on ahead.

"Huh, it is," Conan thought, suddenly recognizing her. Seeing they'd seen her, Yukiko approached. 'What's she doing here?'

"Oh, Ran-chan and Conan-chan! What a coincidence to meet you here!"

'Yeah, right,' thought Conan. "What are you doing back in Beika, Yukiko-obaa…oneesan?"

Yukiko had glared at him fiercely, so he'd changed his tune mid-word. "I came to see Ran-chan, of course! Eri-chan told me something had happened, so I thought I'd come punish Shin-chan for ditching you."

"Mom told you?" Ran asked in surprise.

"I thought it was odd since she doesn't normally call me overseas. When she told me what had happened, I didn't quite believe it at first. So I decided to come here and find out for myself! Yusaku couldn't come because he's busy with deadlines right now."

'Let me guess: you didn't tell him you were coming,' Conan thought. He noticed though that while Ran didn't want to speak with him as Shinichi, she was perfectly fine talking to his mother.

"You know, we were just going to get something to eat," said Ran, in response to her stomach suddenly rumbling. "Would you like to join us?"

"If your father doesn't mind, then sure!" Yukiko said happily.

When they met up with Kogoro, he, being him, was ecstatic to have her along, especially when Yukiko offered to pay for her and Conan's portions. He was still a bit annoyed over the whole Shinichi-Ran situation, but he obviously didn't hold it against Yukiko.

At the restaurant, which was Chinese, Conan and Yukiko ended up sitting across from Ran and Kogoro. The atmosphere was friendly enough, with Yukiko supplying most of the conversation, but soon Yukiko started broaching the sensitive subject.

"So I was planning to yell at Shin-chan later on for what he did, but I don't really know what to say," Yukiko began. "Any ideas?"

Before Ran could answer, Kogoro butted in. "Yeah, you can tell him to shove off! I don't want to see his face anywhere near Ran anymore!"

"Dad!" Ran protested, although her protest wasn't nearly as loud as it had used to be. "You don't have to go that far!"

Conan could tell at once Yukiko was trying to get information about the argument. Seeing the direct approach wasn't going to work, Yukiko tried to be more subtle about it. "Ran-chan, are you feeling OK? You've been through a lot."

"Oh, I'm fine," said Ran. "I just got really mad because he's been lying to me this whole time. So I figure I'll give him a little while to apologize, and if he doesn't, well, I don't really know what I'll do after that."

'Ran…' Conan thought sadly.

"Well, I'm sure he'll apologize before then!" said Yukiko. "Right, Shin-Conan-kun?"

"Uh, sure!" said Conan, caught off guard.

After that, the conversation turned to more innocent topics, and the argument wasn't brought up again. But that wasn't the only nasty surprise that night. A group of college guys entered the restaurant, choosing a table in the corner. One of the guys was the same guy who'd saved Ran's purse, Masato.

Conan looked suspiciously at Ran, whose eyes hadn't left Masato the moment he'd entered. "You know, I should probably thank him again," said Ran suddenly, standing up. Both Kogoro and Yukiko looked at her strangely, keeping an eye on her as she walked across the room.

"Who is that guy?" Kogoro asked, glaring at them fiercely as Ran and Masato started talking. "Is he following her?" The two seemed to be pretty friendly, and the guys he was with started egging Masato on, which made Ran get embarrassed.

After a few minutes, Kogoro moved to a table closer to the college kids to spy, leaving Conan and Yukiko alone.

"Shin-chan," said Yukiko, taking advantage of their being alone to speak frankly. "Just look at what you've done."

"I see it," said Conan darkly. The guys were trying to get Ran to sit down with Masato, but Masato was actively refusing.

"Knowing you, I'd have thought you'd have done something about this already," said Yukiko. "You've made excuses before, or called her with your voice changer, or gotten a friend to stand in for you. Why haven't you done that yet?"

'That's because I haven't come up with a plan yet,' Conan thought.

Yukiko glanced at him playfully. "Don't tell me you don't love her anymore!"

"Mom! It was never like that!" Conan protested.

"Oh! Of course it wasn't!" said Yukiko sarcastically. "You were just so wishy-washy about the whole thing you forced Ran-chan to hate you and go after someone else!"

"I…I…" said Conan, at a complete loss for words. "I didn't mean for this to happen!" he blurted out lamely.

"Well, it has, so you need to do something about it," said Yukiko. "The way I see it, you have three choices. The first is to do nothing, and allow Ran-chan to go on with her life while you hurt inside. The second is to tell her the truth and beg for forgiveness. The third choice is to try and get over Ran-chan by dating someone else. What you do is up to you, Shin-chan, but I know what I'm going to do."

"Wait, you're getting involved?" Conan asked, startled. Her getting involved in romance stuff never went well.

"Of course! You screwed up once, so…what's he doing?" She'd been distracted by Kogoro, who had just made himself known to the kids and was telling them off for getting close to Ran, wine glass in hand. Ran was busy trying to shoo him off.

'Well, at least Occhan is just as suspicious of him,' Conan thought.

"You'd better do something soon!" Yukiko told Conan. "Otherwise you'll miss your chance!"

'I just need to come up with a good plan first,' Conan thought. 'This has gotten a little out of hand, though, so I need a fresh pair of eyes.'

* * *

So Yukiko confronted/teased two characters in this chapter, and there'll be more later. I wonder what'll happen when two characters known for being teasing try to one up each other? And then more new characters show up! There will be three new Conan characters and one OC making an appearance in the next few chapters, so look forward to them shaking everything up. Be sure to leave a favorite and/or a review if you enjoyed this!

The word count for this chapter is 3,300, which is a LOT. I finished the rough draft of chapter sixteen earlier today, and the word count for the whole story so far is nearly 35,000 words. That simply blows my mind considering when I first started posting stories, I had trouble hitting the 1,000 word per chapter mark.

On a side note, I decided to update my old story _Conan's Plan_ first, and you may have seen it in the story list. I went through every chapter updating content, so there are plenty of new surprises even for those who have read it before. I also completely rewrote the finale from scratch. It's an AiXConan romance, so if you like the pairing, be sure to give it a read!


	13. Yet Another Problem

So we get three new characters in this chapter, two of which will probably put a smile on your faces while the third will make you go WTF. That's what I'm going for anyways. And then Yukiko goes after Sera! Two big teasers go at each other, so I wonder who will win?

* * *

Chapter Thirteen

Heiji Hattori looked at his phone's display with a look of utter disbelief. The news was so shocking, he couldn't even speak.

"What is it, Heiji?" Kazuha asked, peering over his shoulder. He tried to hide his phone, but Kazuha snatched it away before he could. Reading the text out loud, she said, "Hattori, I need your help. I screwed up with Ran and I need some advice. I'm afraid she may like some other guy, too." As she had read it, Kazuha's face had gotten paler and paler. "This is from Kudo-kun, isn't it?" she asked, glaring at Heiji.

"Yeah," he said, a grin slowly coming over his face. It wasn't often that he got requests for help from him, and never about something this personal.

"What are you grinning for? This is serious!" Kazuha shouted.

"Kudo needs my help!" said Heiji, turning his hat so that it faced the right way, the mark that he was starting a case. "This is a challenge that I, high school detective Hattori Heiji, cannot ignore!"

"Why are you being so dramatic?" Kazuha asked. "It's not like somebody died!"

'Fool,' Heiji thought. 'It's cause he's got plenty of people he could've normally asked for help, or he could've smoothed the situation out as little Kudo if he could've. If he's asking me for help, that means the situation's gone from bad to worse!'

"OK, then, I'll go with you to Tokyo!" Kazuha announced suddenly.

"Ahou, what are you saying?" Heiji spluttered.

"Well, if Kudo-kun hurt Ran-chan, I want to be there for her. You can do whatever you want, but that's what I'm doing."

Seeing her mind was made up, Heiji just sighed internally. 'Well, I guess I can't stop her. Kudo, I'm coming to help!"

XXX

"That's him, isn't it?" Mitsuhiko asked, peering around a corner at the target.

"Yeah, that's him!" said Ayumi, checking her phone, which had the target's picture.

Conan looked at the target, too. After the kids had found out that Ran might have some interest in that Masato guy, the kids minus Haibara had taken it upon themselves to investigate him. They were currently following him from his old high school, where he was the assistant baseball coach. He carried a glove and a bat, was dressed in the school's baseball uniform, and was walking quietly by himself.

That quickly changed. "Masato-senpai!" a girl called, waving at him.

"Maya-san," said Masato, apparently recognizing her. The girl was dressed in a high school uniform, but despite their age difference, they seemed close.

'Wait, wasn't that woman's daughter named Maya?' Conan thought. He paid extra special attention to their interactions to see if he was a two-timer or not. 'And why does he call her 'Maya-san?' Isn't she younger than him?'

"I heard a girl came up to talk to you at some restaurant, Masato-senpai," Maya said. "Did that happen? Tell me it didn't happen!"

"And what if it did, Maya-san?" Masato said, suddenly sounding annoyed.

"WHAT?" Maya asked, looking very hurt. "Why? Don't tell me you're leading her on!"

"Of course not," said Masato. "I helped her out the other day, so she was just thanking me."

Maya did not look convinced. "What's she like, then?" she asked.

"Her name is Mouri Ran, she's a junior at Teitan High, and she studies karate," said Masato. "Her dad's a pretty famous detective, so she's pretty smart. Plus she's nice, kind, and pretty cute to boot!"

"Eh? So you _do_ like her!" Maya exclaimed.

"I never said that," said Masato, looking away from her. However, his face took on a reddish tinge.

Conan, who was listening in, was shaking in rage. Genta had to grab and hold him to keep him from running and jumping the guy. Ayumi looked pretty hurt at this, a pretty similar look to the one on Maya's face. Masato waved Maya off and kept walking, making Maya stop in the middle of the sidewalk with a look of pure rage on her face. Because she was in the way, the kids couldn't keep tailing Masato.

"Just you wait, Masato-senpai," said Maya as Masato disappeared around a corner. "You've never noticed that a lot of girls have feeligns for you, including me! So why now?" Suddenly her face lit up. "Oh I see! Ran-san must have cast some kind of spell on you! That must be it! If that's the case, then I'll take care of Ran-san and break her hold over you. You'll love me for sure then!" A murderous look came over her face, which completely scared the kids listening in. She finished by walking off laughing like a crazed lunatic.

'Really, a real life yandere?' Conan thought in horror. There were two ways he could see this going. First, the girl might somehow succeed in 'taking care' of Ran, which Conan obviously couldn't allow. The second and likelier option was that Ran would successfully repel Maya, but it would drive Ran and Masato closer as a result.

Maya had run off by now, but Conan knew what he had to do. "Guys, the situation just even worse," he told his friends. "That girl is going to hurt Ran-neechan, and we need to protect her."

The kids looked at each other in worry for a moment. "Of course we will, Conan-kun," said Mitsuhiko. "The Detective Boys are on the case!"

"YEAH!" the three kids shouted, pumping their fists in the air.

With no one left to follow, the kids headed back to guard Ran. However, Conan got a text from Heiji saying that he and Kazuha would be arriving soon and whether he wanted to meet up somewhere private. 'Just go to Agasa-hakase's,' Conan replied. He was still wary about trusting Heiji to help, but he was the only guy his age he could turn to.

XXX

Sera was walking with Ran and Sonoko when she noticed a woman in shades leaning against a wall. It wasn't odd that she was there, since it was a bright day and a hot afternoon, but what _was_ odd was that the woman's gaze had been locked on Sera ever since she'd come into view.

"WHAT?" Sera blurted out suddenly once they were passing her, scaring the daylights out of Ran and Sonoko. "Quit staring at me!"

"Oh, I'm sorry," said the woman, putting a hand over her mouth and sounding genuinely apologetic. "I didn't mean to scare you, Sera-san!"

"How do you know me?" Sera asked suspiciously.

"Oh, that? Ran-chan told me," the woman said, lowering her shades and revealing her face.

"Shinichi-kun's mom!" Sonoko exclaimed when she saw her. Ran, surprisingly, stayed quiet.

'Kudo-kun's mom?' Sera thought. 'What does she want with me?'

"Yeah, it's me!" said Yukiko. "I'm sorry about the disguise, but I couldn't risk any of my fans recognizing me."

'Right, she used to be an actress,' Sera thought. "So, what would you like, Kudo-san?"

"You can call me Yukiko-oneesan, Sera-chan," said Yukiko, smiling. "Or Yukiko-san if you'd prefer. As for what I'd like, I have a formal request for you. A request for a detective. I'd have asked Shin-chan, but he's moping right now and isn't really feeling up to it. And Yusaku isn't around."

Sonoko glanced at Ran pointedly, whose face had become impassive. "So, what is it?" Sera asked curiously.

"Let's walk and talk," said Yukiko, putting an arm around her shoulder. "Girls, I'm going to borrow Sera-chan for a while."

"Uh, sure," said Ran. "You two have fun!"

With that, Yukiko steered Sera back the way she'd come. "So, did you really need something, Yukiko-san?" Sera asked eventually.

"I do, actually, but not what I said before. I've been asking around after I heard Shin-chan and Ran-chan had their big fight, and your name popped up a few times, so I figured I'd get your side of the story."

"My side? Who did you ask?"

"Oh, just some of Shin-chan's friends," said Yukiko, holding her hand parallel to the ground at around waist height.

'So she talked to the kids?' Sera thought in surprise. 'So that means she knows I know the truth?' "Well, I don't really know all that much," said Sera. "It's not really any of my business."

Yukiko just looked at her knowingly. She'd released Sera from her vicelike grip by now, but she still stayed really close, making Sera uncomfortable. "Maybe it isn't your business, but that doesn't mean you don't know, does it?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sera retorted.

"Well, let me put it this way," Yukiko continued. "I happened across a girl that also knows the truth about Shin-chan's condition who secretly likes him and is quite jealous of you. I wonder why that is?"

'Eh?' Sera thought in surprise, feeling her face going red. She tried her hardest to not let it show on her face. "What are you saying, Yukiko-san? I'm not into shotacon."

"Of course not," she affirmed. "But I'm right, aren't I? That's why you've been investigating him since you've come back. You know I call him sometimes, right? He told me all about you."

"Did he?" Sera asked quietly, trying to keep her emotions under control.

"Just good things, mind you," said Yukiko. "And while I've always thought of Ran-chan as my future daughter-in-law, I think you've got more a chance with him than you realize. I think Ran-chan's beginning to move on. She didn't even react when I tried to take you away. If your lover's mother took another girl away, what would _you_ think?"

"I'd…be worried, or jealous, or something," Sera supplied.

"Right! But Ran-chan didn't act like that. She isn't one to let things go easily, so I'm kind of worried about her."

"Maybe she's just waiting while she settles her feelings," Sera suggested.

"Maybe. We'll see for certain as time goes on. From this point on, Sera-chan, we're technically enemies because I'll be helping Ran-chan while you'll be driving a wedge."

"Uh, no, I'm not…"

"Sera-chan, may the best woman win," said Yukiko, taking Sera's hand in a handshake. "And good luck!"

With that, Yukiko left her and walked away. 'Is she serious?' Sera thought in amazement. 'I guess I know where he gets his flair for the dramatic now, huh?'

* * *

So several things happened this time. First are Heiji and Kazuha deciding to visit. They'll show up next chapter and stay a few days. Then there's Maya. In my original draft of this chapter, I made Maya a full on yandere girl, but when I kept writing I decided to change her characters so she's not full-yandere. She still has a mind and hasn't gone crazy; she's just confused. Of course, that doesn't mean she's not dangerous! Just that she's a bit more sympathetic than the norm.

A note about Sera: since she's friends with Ran, she doesn't feel right about making a move on Conan/Shinichi and won't without a LOT of prodding. You see the start of it here, but it'll take a while before she gets the guts to do anything. Conan, of course, is absolutely clueless about how she feels. Speaking of cluelessness, that's how I'm written Masato's character, too. He's pretty oblivious to the fact that a lot of girls like him, including Maya.

Next chapter is when Maya starts making moves and Heiji tries to help Conan (with hilarious results). And another Conan character shows up. Feel free to guess who it is, and let me know about the story if you have an opinion! :)


	14. Maya vs Kazuha

Heiji and Kazuha show up for real this time, and run face-first into the whole Maya problem. Plus Heiji's absolutely clueless when it comes to girls, so him trying to help out Conan is a thing to see. (No wonder he hasn't confessed yet! XD )

* * *

Chapter Fourteen

Kazuha arrived at the Mouri Detective Agency ready for the worst. Heiji had run off to meet with Shinichi alone as soon as they'd stepped off the train, so she was on her own. When she reached the door, she debated what to do for a moment before ringing the bell since she didn't know if they were expecting her.

"Come in!" a voice called from inside. Kazuha opened the door to find two women she didn't know talking with each other. One had long hair, was dressed like a woman half her age, and seemed to be pretty rambunctious. She also thought she recognized the woman from somewhere. The other woman wore glasses and had her hair up in a tight bun. Unlike the first woman, she was dressed very professionally. The one thing they had in common was that they were both very beautiful.

"Excuse me," said Kazuha timidly, interrupting their conversation. "Who are you?"

"Oh, are you a friend of Heiji-kun?" the first woman asked suddenly.

"Oh! Yes! But who are you?"

"Kudo Yukiko," the woman said, smiling at her. "You've met my son before, right?"

'She's Kudo-kun's mom?' Kazuha thought in surprise. 'Then the other woman must be…'

"I'm Kisaki Eri," the second woman said, handing Kazuha a business card.

"You're a lawyer," said Kazuha, looking at the card. Ran had mentioned that her mother was a lawyer, but it was hard to believe this was her. She looked so _stern_.

"So, you're one of Ran's friends, right?" Eri said. "She's upstairs right now if you'd like to see her."

"Oh, thank you!" said Kazuha, bowing politely and heading for the door. 'But when did Heiji meet Kudo-kun's mom?' Kazuha thought to herself. 'He's never mentioned her.'

When she walked out on the landing, Kazuha noticed a girl around her age in a school uniform that had her ear to the 3rd floor door. She hadn't been there when Kazuha had first arrived. She was around Kazuha's height, with hair that reached slightly past her shoulders that had two red ribbons in it, one on either side of her head. When the girl saw Kazuha, her eyes narrowed. "Are you…Ran-san?" she asked suspiciously.

The girl gave off a really weird vibe, which made Kazuha instantly suspicious. It was something about her _gaze_. "She's a friend of mine," she replied. "Why, did you want to talk to her?"

"No, that's all right," said the girl, relaxing a bit. "I don't want to freak her out or anything."

'Then why are you stalking her?' Kazuha thought.

"I'm just…going to go now," said the girl, heading past Kazuha. But Kazuha was too hot-blooded to just let her go like that.

"Why are you stalking Ran-chan?" she asked fiercely, gripping the girl's upper arm with a grip of steel.

"Let go! Let go!" the girl squealed loudly. Then Kazuha felt a sharp, pointed pain on her forearm. The girl had just stabbed her in her wrist with a small sewing needle. It didn't really do any damage, but it made Kazuha let go of the girl in surprise. The girl took advantage of the distraction to shove Kazuha into the wall and bolt down the stairs and disappear.

Two doors flew open as Eri, Yukiko, Ran, Sonoko, and three of Conan's friends poked their heads out due to the squealing. "Kazuha-chan!" Ran said in surprise, seeing her friend in front of her. Then she saw Kazuha cradling her wrist. "What happened?" Ran asked, helping Kazuha inside the apartment. Ayumi appeared with a first aid kit as Ran helped Kazuha sit down at the table and everybody crowded around them.

"There was…a girl," Kazuha began as Ran cleaned her up. "She was standing by the door with her ear to the crack trying to listen in. When I asked her what she was doing, she gave me a lame excuse and tried to leave. When I confronted her about it, she stabbed me with a needle and ran. She was the one who squealed really loudly."

"A girl?" Ran asked in surprise. "What did she look like?"

Kazuha described her appearance, which made the three kids take on identical looks of horror. "What is it?" Kazuha asked.

"It's her, isn't it?" Mitsuhiko said.

"Who is it?" Sonoko asked rudely.

Ayumi took a deep breath before saying, "We wanted to see what the guy that Ran-san likes is like, so we followed him. While we were watching, a girl came up to talk to him, and she asked a lot of questions about Ran-san."

"I think she liked that niichan," Genta added.

"But he didn't like her back, so he told her a little bit about you and brushed her off," said Mitsuhiko. "That's when she said she was going to do something about you so he'd like her."

Everybody looked at the kids with identical looks of astonishment and paranoia. Ran recovered first. "So that's who you three were protecting me from!" she exclaimed. "You should've just told me to begin with. Well, if she ever comes back, I'll knock her out with my karate! So don't you worry!" She illustrated this by banging her fist on the table.

"Still, Ran," said Eri worriedly. "We can't just let this go. She attacked Kazuha-chan. We need to call the police immediately!"

"No, that's all right," said Ran, smiling gently. "I'll just go talk to her and tell her that there's nothing between me and Masato-kun."

Sonoko's face suddenly took on a look of pure joy. "Then Ran, does that mean you're going to talk to Kudo-kun again?"

"I…don't know," said Ran. "Unless he shows himself in front of me and tells me the entire truth, I don't know if I can forgive him anytime soon. But what I do know is that Masato-kun is just a friend, so I need to tell that girl that before she does something she regrets and hurts herself."

Both Sonoko and Yukiko looked disappointed at this, but they didn't say anything. "By the way, Kazuha-chan," said Sonoko. "What exactly are you doing here?"

As Kazuha started to explain the whole story, Yukiko was busy sending a text to somebody.

XXX

Conan had asked Heiji to meet at Professor Agasa's house so that he could properly tell him about what had happened. It wasn't like him to normally ask Heiji for help over something personal like this, but he was getting desperate. He was prepared for teasing, but both Agasa and Haibara were there to act as mediators, so it wouldn't be as bad as it could've been.

"So, basically you screwed up and now that girl seems to have gotten another guy's attention?" Heiji asked once Conan had explained.

"Essentially," said Conan, looking at the floor.

He was anticipating some teasing, but Heiji surprisingly didn't start up with it. "Well then, Kudo, I guess we'd better do something about this. You obviously can't apologize to her as you now, so we need to show her she's wrong about you in some other way. You said she suspects you of cheating, right? Well, let's prove her right by proving her wrong!"

"That…doesn't make any sense," said Conan. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, if she suspects you of being with a girl, then we give her you and a girl. But the girl needs to be someone she knows you can't be in a relationship with, so she'll think she misunderstood." He glanced at Haibara, who was busy listening to music and not paying any attention to them, as he said this.

'Wait, you want to do _that_?' Conan thought in horror as he slowly comprehended what Heiji was saying.

He tried to protest, but Heiji had gone over to talk to Haibara. "Hey, little girl!" he said loudly, tapping Haibara on the shoulder.

"WHAT?" Haibara asked rudely, popping out an earbud and glaring at him.

"Kudo over there needs a favor," said Heiji, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at Conan, who felt mortified.

"Kudo-kun needs a favor? So do him a favor, then!"

"No, no, he needs one from _you_."

Haibara still looked annoyed, but she took out her other earbud to listen. "Fine. Tell me what you want and _maybe_ I'll help."

"All right!" said Heiji. "Kudo, get over here and listen!"

Conan felt Haibara's gaze on him as he walked over.

"OK," said Heiji. "First, me and the little girl are gonna go to the Detective Agency where Kazuha and your girl are at. Then, Kudo's gonna call me as Kudo and I'm gonna start talking to him about something random. That doesn't really matter. When this little girl hears it's you on the other end, she's gonna go 'Oh, it's Shinichi-sama!' and beg for me to give 'er the phone. We're all gonna act like Kudo was trying to keep this little girl's fangirl crush a secret so that that girl wouldn't worry about it, but it backfired. So, how about it?"

Haibara gave both guys a hard glare before saying, "NO," and going back to her music.

"Was it not a good plan?" Heiji asked cluelessly.

'What is wrong with you?' Conan thought in annoyance. 'Did you seriously think she'd go along with something that stupid?'

"If you really want some help with that stupid plan, then why don't you find someone else?" Haibara said suddenly. "Like maybe that girl detective?"

"Girl detective?" said Heiji. "Don't tell me she _knows_ about 'ya!"

"Yeah, well, about that…" said Conan. He hadn't told him before about what had happened with the kidnapping, so he quickly relayed the story.

"So, you two trust each other now, huh?" said Heiji. "All right, then! Call her up and ask her for help!"

Conan still felt dubious, but he went along with it. "Sera-san?" he said once the phone answered.

"What is it, Kudo-kun? You sound weird."

"Well, Hattori had an idea that he wanted you to hear."

"Oh, Hattori-kun did? Well, let me hear it then!"

Conan put the phone on speaker, and Heiji explained his plan.

"Let me get this straight," said Sera. "You want me to pretend to be a fangirl of Kudo-kun in order to make Ran-chan feel guilty and go back to Kudo-kun? I don't follow your logic."

"When that girl sees you and Kudo talking, she'll realize that you're just friends and she made an innocent mistake and take him back. Simple, right?"

"NO IT ISN'T!" Sera shouted suddenly, making both guys flinch from the noise. "Ran-chan started acting weird when Kudo-kun went back to himself to help me out! So if I'm the cause of the problem, I'm not about to make it worse! Go find another guinea pig!"

With that, the line went dead. "I agree with her," said Conan. "Your plan is ridiculous."

Heiji started to respond, but was distracted by a text coming in on Conan's phone. "What's going on?" Heiji asked, seeing Conan's face.

"That yandere girl showed up looking for Ran. Kazuha chased her off, but got injured."

"WHAT?" Heiji shouted, peering at the message. "Kazuha got attacked?"

"It was just a flesh wound…" said Conan, trying to reassure him, but Heiji was no longer listening. "I'm heading over to see her!" he declared, racing out of the house as fast as he could go.

"Hmm…" said Haibara, smirking. "If you'd just followed his example you wouldn't be in this situation. If you'd been so thoroughly honest with her that you two ended up shouting all the time, she'd never have doubted you."

"Oh, be quiet," Conan said rudely.

* * *

OK, so the surprise character was Eri. She won't really do much, though, so it's basically just a cameo. The reason Kazuha didn't take care of Maya was that she hadn't heard of Maya at that point and was curious what she was doing there. Then Maya ran off before she could retaliate after being injured. Luckily it wasn't too bad, but Maya certainly isn't giving up yet.

I'm hoping I didn't flanderize Heiji too much with that stupid plan of his, but I'll let you decide on that.

Next chapter is the Maya vs. Ran showdown, which will surprisingly not end immediately via a single kick from Ran. That's all the hints I'll give on that. Oh, and Subaru Okiya will make his way back into the story next chapter, and will stick around until the end of the story.


	15. Ran Being Awesome

And here's the Maya confrontation! I put in a couple of twists, so hopefully you'll enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

* * *

Chapter Fifteen

Subaru Okiya sat in the mansion's living room, reading a novel. The wife of the house's owner, Yukiko Kudo, was busy cleaning another room, leaving him to do as he pleased. It was the evening of the second day since she'd come to visit. He hadn't really taken an interest in all the romantic drama that was going on, which Yukiko had gone on about at great length, figuring that Conan/Shinichi was smart and that he'd figure something out on his own.

The doorbell rang, distracting him from his book. He went to answer it, but Yukiko beat him to it. "Oh, Ran-chan, Kazuha-chan, and Sera-chan! What can I do for you?"

"Sera-chan suggested we go somewhere unexpected to hide," Ran explained. "Sera-chan and Kazuha-chan are guarding me. Sonoko got stuck with family stuff, so she couldn't come."

"Oh, are you Kudo-kun's father?" the girl in the ponytail asked, noticing Subaru.

"Do you think so?" Yukiko asked teasingly.

"That's Okiya Subaru-san," Ran said, introducing him. "He's been staying here ever since his apartment burned down. Subaru-san, this is my friend Toyama Kazuha-chan from Osaka."

"Nice to meet you!" said Kazuha cheerfully.

"Same to you," said Subaru kindly. He and Yukiko stood aside to let the girls in, where they quickly changed into slippers.

"Wow, what a big western-style house!" Kazuha exclaimed, looking around. "It's even bigger than Heiji's! His isn't western-style, though."

"Would you like some tea?" Subaru offered. The girls nodded, so he went to get some while Yukiko took the girls to the living room. While he was waiting for the kettle, he thought he saw a girl peering in through the window. He poked his head out the back door, but there was nobody around. 'Did I imagine it?' he thought. If the girl had been real, then she'd been staring at him with a hard, disgusted look.

When he returned to the living room, the four women were talking animatedly about something. When he put the tea down, they thanked him, picked their cups, and went back to their conversation.

"And when Hattori-kun burst in, Kazuha-chan's face turned bright red!" Ran said, apparently finishing a story.

"Oh, Ran-chan!" Kazuha wailed. "Don't say things like that!"

"So, do you like Heiji-kun, Kazuha-chan?" Yukiko asked sweetly.

"Uh, well…" Kazuha stuttered, her face turning red.

"Well, that's a confirmation if I've ever heard one," said Sera, grinning.

Kazuha seemed to be getting fed up with getting picked on now. "All right then, Sera-san. Is there anybody _you_ like?"

Every eye turned to Sera, whose grin disappeared instantly. "Hey, since when did this become about me?" she asked defensively.

"Well, we _are_ interested," said Ran sneakily. "So, what's your answer?"

"I…don't know if I should say…" said Sera.

"Sera-chan," said Yukiko, "would you like me to tell them?"

"Eh?" Ran and Kazuha said suddenly. "Yukiko-san knows?"

"Oi, don't say unnecessary things!" Sera said loudly, her face flushing.

Subaru knew Sera well enough to know when she was lying about something, and that was what she was doing now. He had to admit he was a bit curious about who the guy actually was, since Sera generally didn't take an interest in guys. Speaking up, he said, "Well, if you won't tell us, I suppose we'll have to guess. We'll ask you questions about who he or she is and you'll answer them as much or as little as you want. Does that work?"

"Oi! I'm a girl you know!" Sera retorted, jumping out of her chair. "So he's a guy!"

"So there _is_ someone!" said Kazuha, making Sera twitch.

"Uh, no, he just caught me by surprise is all," said Sera, glaring at Subaru, who smirked.

'You are really easy to manipulate, Masumi,' he thought smugly as she sat back down, her face red. The question thing had just been a ruse to make her blurt something out in anger. The reason he was so curious was that Sera was always getting herself into trouble, so if she really did like some guy he had to be sure the guy was all right.

Sera quickly changed the subject. "So, how's it going with Masato-san, Ran-chan?"

This time it was Ran's turn to jump. "We're just friends is all," she replied quickly. "Why, what did you hear?"

"Oh, nothing much," said Sera vaguely. "Just something you dad said."

"What did Dad say?" Ran asked at once in a fierce tone.

"Just something about how he's not nearly as bad as Kudo-kun," said Sera. "Why, what did you think he said?"

"Oh, uh, nothing like that," said Ran, blushing.

Subaru noticed Yukiko looking at Sera suspiciously. Before the conversation could continue further, the power went out.

XXX

Conan and Heiji left the school grounds, feeling dejected. "Nobody's seen her today?" Heiji asked, pounding his fist into his hand.

'What did you expect?' Conan thought. 'She probably knows we're looking for her.' "Well, since we don't know where she is, let's get Ran to safety," said Conan, pulling out his phone and sending a text.

"Oh, you're mailing that detective girl?" Heiji asked teasingly.

"Well, yeah, because she's the only one that'll listen to me," said Conan.

"Is that _really_ the only reason?" said Heiji cheekily.

"What are you getting at?" Conan asked, clueless.

"Here's my reasonin': you like strong girls, but with your neechan out of the way you latched onto the next closest thing. So, you like that detective girl, right Kudo?"

'What?' Conan thought in surprise. 'Where'd that come from?' "Of course not!" he said quickly, shaking his head.

"I'm just kidding, Kudo. What's with that overreaction? Are you hungry?"

'Ha ha, so it was a joke,' Conan thought. 'He can be so annoying.'

They had just spent the afternoon asking around Beika High School about that Maya girl, and they'd found out quite a bit of information. She was indeed the daughter of the woman at the leather shop, and the sister of one of Masato's friends. She had also become completely obsessed with him for reasons that nobody really understood. It wasn't exactly a secret how she felt about him, but Masato was so blind to her affections he'd never noticed. Or maybe he chose not to notice. He basically chose not to notice girls in general. That was why the rumors of him having found a girl were so prevalent. When Heiji had asked about Masato, over half the people they'd talked to had mentioned the rumors.

"So, where now, Kudo?" Heiji asked. "It's your girl that's in danger."

Conan wanted to stick with Ran, but he'd asked Sera to take her somewhere unexpected, which meant now he had the chance to gain the upper hand. "Well, that girl will probably show up at the Detective Agency again. We should head back and stake it out."

"Right, and we can get some food from that café it's over!" said Heiji happily. On that note, they hailed a taxi and were back at the agency in ten minutes. "Hey, what's up?" Heiji said as soon as he walked into the office.

"Want some sushi?" Kogoro asked, indicating a large sushi box that was on his desk. "It came after Ran left, so there's a ton of it, but only one of me."

"Don't mind if I do!" said Heiji, taking one. But Conan was suspicious.

"Have you eaten any of that yet?" he asked suddenly.

"I was about to when you two walked in," said Kogoro rudely. "It was a gift from a grateful client."

"Where's the tag?" Conan asked. Kogoro sighed in annoyance before digging the tag out of the trash and showing it to him.

"Look, it says, 'Thank you, Mouri-san, for your help last month. Please accept this as a token of my gratitude.'

'Thank you Mouri- _san_?' Conan thought. 'Wouldn't a grateful client say Mouri- _tantei_ and specify the case? Plus, there's no signature!' "No Occhan, don't eat it!" he shouted, scaring both guys to death.

"Why not?" Kogoro asked. "It's free food!"

"It might be poisoned!" Conan shouted. That got Kogoro's attention. He and Heiji quickly threw their food back into the box. "Don't you think it's odd that the client didn't reference the case or sign it when they wrote the note? Plus they said Mouri-san instead of Mouri-tantei. What if it was meant for Ran-neechan?"

"So you're saying that crazy girl planted this?" Kogoro asked, staring at the food. Then he and Heiji both ran to the sink to wash their hands. "But why did they give us this? Ran just left, and surely that girl would've seen her leave. The sushi came only two minutes after they left."

"It's probably coated in some mild poison that won't kill, but will distract us long enough that we won't be able to help Ran!" Conan shouted. "That means she's going after Ran right now!"

Heiji pulled out his phone immediately and called Kazuha. "Oi Kazuha!" he shouted. "We think that girl's trying to follow you! Stay inside and keep an eye out!" There was silence for a moment as Kazuha responded. "Wait, you're at Kudo's house and the power just went out? Get you all some flashlights and stay alert! Me and Mouri-tantei are heading over there right now!"

Without another word, the three of them headed for the door. As they went, Kogoro called Masato out of desperation, in hope he could talk Maya down before something bad happened.

XXX

Sera was using her phone as a flashlight as she scoured the house for any sign of intruders. They had split up in groups, with Ran and Kazuha in one group and Sera, Subaru, and Yukiko in the other. "The breaker hasn't been touched," Sera noted, flipping the switch a few times. "It must be a neighborhood thing."

"No, it doesn't look like it," said Yukiko, glancing out the window. "Agasa-hakase's house still has power."

"So it's reasonable to assume that the power was cut deliberately," said Subaru. "Come to think of it, I thought I saw a girl outside when I was getting the tea."

"What? Why didn't you say that earlier?" Sera said loudly.

"I didn't know you were being stalked until I listened to your conversation," Subaru explained. "So I suppose we share the blame 50/50 on this one, right Sera-san?"

'Eh?' Sera thought in surprise. 'Where have I heard that phrase before…' "Well, it's not safe to remain here with the power out," said Sera. "Why don't we go next door?"

"I'm sure Agasa-hakase wouldn't mind!" said Yukiko. "Let's meet up with the girls and go over there."

Suddenly a loud scream echoed through the house. 'Ran-chan!' Sera thought, rushing through the house in a panic. She found Ran and Kazuha by the front entrance, staring at something on the shoe cabinet. It was a girl's doll, dressed in a frilly pink dress with blue eyes, blonde hair, and a china face. It was holding a doll-sized knife and was standing over Ran's shoes which had been stabbed to pieces.

"It's…it's ALIVE!" Ran shouted, trembling, making her and Kazuha grab each other and scream in terror.

"Don't be silly," said Subaru smoothly, taking a step forward and knocking the doll over with a brush of his hand. "The girl just posed the doll here as a scare tactic. It's not really alive."

"Oh, is that so?" Ran and Kazuha asked sheepishly.

"But doesn't that mean that girl is in my _house_?" Yukiko asked shrilly. "Everyone, we're going to the library and locking the door while I call for assistance."

"Heiji called earlier and said he was on his way," Kazuha interjected.

"That's a relief, then!" said Ran. "I think I'll go to the bathroom before we go, though. The doll really scared me."

"Oh, I'll go with you!" said Sera. "We shouldn't go anywhere alone."

"Don't take too long, you two!" said Yukiko, pulling out her phone to call for help.

"The way she said that, it was like when she used to talk about me and Shinichi," said Ran thoughtfully as they walked to the restroom. When they reached it, Sera whipped open the door while Ran shone a light inside. "Good, she's not here," said Ran.

Sera heard something rustling a ways away, but when she turned to look, she couldn't see anything. "Turn your light off," she whispered to Ran.

"What is it?" Ran whispered back, clicking it off.

"I heard something," said Sera. "I feel eyes peering at us, too. I think she's watching us."

"What?" Ran whispered.

"Don't worry, I've got a plan," said Sera. "Just follow my lead." Loudly, she said, "OK, Ran-chan, I'll just head back to the library to wait for you, so don't take too long, OK? I'll get us some new flashlights, too, since the batteries died in ours."

"OK, Sera-chan!" Ran said, playing along. Sera opened and slammed the bathroom door to give the impression Ran had gone inside, and then tapped her feet on the floor loudly to pretend she'd left. With that done, she and Ran positioned themselves inside a nearby room to wait for Maya.

It didn't take long. After about thirty seconds, Maya emerged from around the far corner, dressed in her school uniform and carrying a kitchen knife in one hand and a penlight in the other. 'Geh, what a creepy girl,' Sera thought as she noticed the determined look of hate on the girl's face.

Ran tensed up behind her and whispered, "That's that girl that was staring at me from the school yard earlier! Sonoko was the one who noticed her, but when we called over the teacher, the girl had vanished." There was silence for a moment before Ran said, "Wait, is her hand trembling?"

Sera looked, and saw her hand was indeed trembling slightly, like she nervous. 'Well, she thinks she's about to kill Ran-chan, so of course she'd be nervous,' she thought.

"Sera-chan, I don't think she's really an enemy," Ran whispered suddenly. "Will you wait here while I go check?" Bravely, she pushed past Sera and out into the hallway, clicking on her flashlight as she went and ignoring Sera's protests.

Maya froze as Ran appeared. "Ran-san," she said quietly, glaring at her.

"Maya-san, what are you doing here?" Ran asked, feigning innocence. "Are you waiting for someone in the bathroom?"

Seeing Maya was distracted, Sera left her room by another door, so she was on the other side of Maya. "No, nobody in particular," said Maya, making no attempt to hide the large knife she carried. "Is it true you know karate?"

"Oh, just a little," Ran lied, still feigning calmness. The calm way she was acting made her just as scary as the girl as far as Sera was concerned. "The doll was your idea, right? How'd you come up with it?"

Maya seemed a little surprised that Ran wasn't trying to fight her, and was instead trying to talk like a rational human being. "Well, I heard from some of your classmates that you were really superstitious, so I thought I'd try to scare you. It worked, didn't it? I heard screaming."

"Yes, it did," said Ran. "That was very creative, Maya-san. Although cutting up my shoes was a little much."

Sera watched the ongoing conversation with wide eyes. If she'd been in charge, she would've just kicked the girl in the face. While Ran was certainly capable of doing that, she was going the non-violent route instead. "I'm sorry," said Maya, looking at the floor. "I just didn't want you to try to run." Her posture relaxed, so Ran took a few steps closer.

"Maya-san, I'm sorry I made you hate me so much. It was never my intention to cause you this much pain."

Maya looked up at her, tears in her eyes. "Ran-san, why are you doing this? Why are being so manipulative?"

Ran looked very surprised. "I…I wasn't trying to be manipulative. I just thought you might need a friend. I wanted to keep you from doing something you'll regret."

"Why? You don't know me."

"I don't really need to, do I? Every person deserves to have people care about them. And I'd feel bad if Maya-san continued to hate me. I'd feel like it was my fault, and I don't know if I could live with that."

This time it was Ran's turn to look at the floor. Then Maya spoke up. "Ran-san, you're…a really nice person."

"You think?" Ran asked, sounding surprised.

Maya looked at Ran through tear-stained eyes. "You…are a much better person that I could ever hope to be, Ran-san. Meeting you for the first time, I can see that now. You're not manipulative at all. Please make Masato-senpai happy." Then she dropped the knife and the penlight, and the two girls embraced, both crying.

Sera was distracted from the heartwarming scene by the front door banging open in another part of the house and four guys with flashlights running down the hall towards them: Kogoro, Heiji, Conan, and Masato. "Shh!" she said quietly, cutting off their many questions before they could even get them out. "You'll ruin the good part!"

The guys looked at her confusedly before slowly walking forward and peering around the corner. Noticing the guys staring at them, Ran and Maya broke apart. The noise from the guys rushing in had attracted the other three to come back from the library.

"Masato-senpai," said Maya shyly, looking at the ground. "I'm sorry for all the trouble. I wish you luck in your relationship with Ran-chan." Then she turned bright red and raced out the door.

"What just happened?" Masato asked cluelessly, staring after the retreating Maya. "What did she mean by that?"

"Oh, there was just a little misunderstanding," said Ran cheerfully, covering for her. "You're lucky to have such a devoted friend as her. But what are you doing here?"

"Your dad called me, saying you were having a problem with Maya-san. I happen to live around here, so I rushed over." He said this first part pretty normally, but then he started getting a little antsy. "By the way, Ran-san, I've been meaning to ask you something. Do you have a boyfriend?"

He asked this right in front of everybody, taking the whole group completely off guard. Most of the girls had a combination of surprise or 'go for it!' etched on their faces while Heiji and Subaru just watched quietly. Kogoro looked ready to jump in and chase Masato off, but Kazuha grabbed him and held him back.

Sera noticed Conan looked ready to go nuts too, so she quickly grabbed him, picked him up, and held him tightly against her chest to prevent him from doing anything. "Don't interfere, or she'll never forgive you," she whispered in his ear, which made him stop struggling.

"Uh, no," Ran stuttered, her face going red. "But I have this close friend of mine that I'm kind of in a bad spot with, so I'd like to smooth things out with him before thinking about something like that."

"I understand," said Masato, smiling gently. "Take all the time you need."

* * *

Ran is basically the only character that could've pulled that off. Anybody else would've either run off or fought back rather than consider her feelings. I thought it would be a nice change from the norm. The only problem now is that Maya's intense feelings of (platonic) admiration just got transferred to Ran. I wonder what that friendship will be like? :P

The next chapter will have Shinichi and Ran finally make up, so hopefully there won't be any more angsting about that. And Sera and Conan start getting closer.


	16. Sera vs The Fat Woman

I probably should've uploaded this earlier, but I was having trouble with a later chapter and I like to stay four-five chapter ahead of what's posted on here. Anyways, here's the aftermath of the Maya incident with Ran and Shinichi finally getting some closure. And Sera gets in more trouble, setting off the last five-chapter arc.

* * *

Chapter Sixteen

It had been a week since the Maya incident. Maya herself had accepted Ran and Masato being together, although the two of them were a little more hesitant to get involved. Conan certainly didn't like that fact, but he didn't really have a choice but to accept it.

Heiji, Kazuha, and Yukiko had all gone home once the crisis was averted, although Heiji and Yukiko contacted Conan frequently to check on his progress. He had found it annoying at first, but had started getting used to it.

"So, have you called her yet?" Sera asked him, looking at him with an unknown expression on her face.

"Not yet," Conan replied. For some reason, Sera had kept bugging him to call Ran, but he kept getting cold feet whenever he tried. He didn't really want to call her because that would signify that they had both moved on. It was probably for similar reasons that Ran hadn't called him, either.

"Well, how long are you going to wait?" Sera asked, glancing around at the passersby. They were walking through Beika in the middle of the afternoon, but nobody was really paying them any attention. "The longer you wait, the harder it will be."

"Yeah, I know," said Conan. "It's just kind of…hard to do. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I think so," said Sera. "But I've never really been in this kind of situation, so it's hard for me to relate. How about this, though? If you won't man up and call Ran-chan, I'll do it for you."

"What?" Conan asked, startled. "How are you planning to do that? Why would you do that?"

Instead of replying, Sera suddenly swooped down on him, digging in his pockets before removing the bowtie voice changer and his cell phone. "I'll do it like this, of course!" she said, grinning at him.

"Oi!" said Conan, trying to grab his phone back. "What are you doing?"

"I'm taking the initiative," said Sera. "Since you won't do it yourself, I figured I'd do it for you and save you the emotional grief."

'Seriously?' Conan thought, annoyed. He jumped for the bowtie this time, but Sera brought it up in front of her face and out of his reach. She started fiddling with the settings before eventually nailing Shinichi's voice.

Once that was done, she called Ran. The phone rang for a minute before Ran answered. "Hello Ran!" Sera said in Shinichi's voice. "It's me! I wanted to apologize for what I said before and…I wanted to see how you were doing."

Conan looked at Sera, absolutely mortified. He adjusted the knobs on his shoes so he could jump higher, but Sera kept moving out of his reach. 'Seriously, give me my phone!' he screamed mentally.

"Oh really, Ran?" Sera asked. "Well, that's great, I guess." At this point, Conan started tugging on her pants to get her attention in a very childish manner. "Oh hold on a minute; some kid's distracting me. Give me a moment." With that, she covered the speaker and gave the phone and the bowtie to Conan.

Conan still felt nervous, but he couldn't exactly back out now. "Sorry about that, Ran," he said, continuing the conversation from where it'd left off. "So, where were we?"

"I was apologizing for doubting you, Shinichi," said Ran. "I know you didn't mean to make me mad, but I was so distraught at the time I wasn't exactly thinking straight. And then one thing led to another and then Dad chased you out. So I'm sorry, Shinichi."

"It's OK, Ran," said Conan. "I know you weren't yourself."

"Really? Oh, I'm so glad! I thought for sure you'd never speak to me again!"

"Don't be silly, Ran! I'd never hate you for something like that."

"Thank you, Shinichi," said Ran. There was silence on the other end before Ran said hesitantly, "There's something else you should know, Shinichi. A guy I met a while ago, Tsukumo Masato-kun, asked me to be his girlfriend. I didn't give him an answer yet, because I didn't know if you were coming home any time soon, so here's my question Shinichi: Will you be coming home soon?" She sounded almost about to cry as she asked the question, so Shinichi knew he'd have to pick his next words carefully. The last time he'd blurted something out, he'd gotten chased by Kogoro.

"Ran, even if I did come home, it'd only be for a day, two at most. I'm just too busy right now. And…" he hesitated for a moment, "if you like this Masato guy, then go ahead and go out with him."

Ran was silent on the other end. "Well, I kind of like him, I guess. And if you're sure you won't be coming back, then I suppose I can say yes. Oh, all these weird feelings are driving me _nuts_! If he wants me to be his girlfriend, and if you're OK with it, then I'll say yes. See you around, Shinichi."

The line went dead, so Conan hung up the phone, feeling like a weight had just settled on his heart. He felt ready to cry, but he knew better than to do that in front of Sera. He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, staring at the ground.

Sera dropped to her knees in front of him and put a hand on his shoulder, staring him down. "Kudo-kun, I'm sorry about that stunt I pulled, but I couldn't stand to see two of my friends mired in grief and uncertainty. At least now you have your answer, right?" Unlike how she normally acted, she was speaking very softly and tenderly. Conan said nothing, preferring instead to keep looking at the ground. But Sera wouldn't give up. "How about we go do something to take your mind off Ran-chan? We could go get some food."

Conan still said nothing, barely registering her. "Would it change anything?" he said at last.

"Maybe not, but it's better than standing out here," Sera told him. "Now come on." She stood back up and took him by the hand, forcing him to move.

XXX

Sera looked across the table at Conan, who was slowly chewing on a french fry from his kiddie meal. She'd taken him to a fast food restaurant, as she figured the crappy food would go best with his crappy mood. She's seen him like this before, when he'd had the big fight with Ran, so she knew the best medicine was time. She still felt really bad for him, though, and she felt responsible for putting him in such a bad mood. That was why she was so determined to fix it.

"Kudo-kun, do you want to talk about it?" Sera asked eventually, after they'd mostly eaten in silence.

"Not really," said Conan quietly.

"Well I'm not going to let you stay depressed," Sera told him, "and talking about something might help."

"Fine, I'll talk," said Conan, giving in. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Just about anything, I guess. It doesn't really matter. Let's see…what's it like being a kid that nobody ever listens to?"

"Annoying. Nobody gives me the time of day and I'm too short to do much of anything."

"It can't be that bad," said Sera. "You can do pretty much whatever you want without getting arrested."

"True," he agreed. "Nobody thinks twice about what a kid is doing, especially when they're with a group."

"See, it's not that bad!" said Sera. Then she got cheeky. "Plus, you can sneak into women's restrooms without anything thinking it's suspicious."

"Oi! I don't do that!" Conan protested. "Besides, what about you? You can go in men's bathrooms just fine."

"True, but there's a double standard in play for me, so it's not nearly as big a deal," Sera admitted. "Besides, men's bathrooms are generally cleaner, so it's not like I hate doing it."

"Men's bathrooms are cleaner?" Conan asked in surprise. "I would've thought the opposite was true."

"Huh, I guess you really haven't been in a girl's bathroom," Sera replied. "I've just reevaluated my opinion of you, Kudo-kun." She winked at him, making him cast his eyes away. Then she hit on an idea. "How about I show you the proof, then?" she asked, looking pointedly at the restrooms in the back.

THAT got Conan's attention. "What are you saying, Sera? I'm not going in there!"

'Maybe not, but I got you to call me 'Sera' instead of 'Sera-san'," she thought happily. "Well, whether you go in there or not, I'm going right now, so don't leave, OK?" Feeling slightly better about herself, she got up and headed for the bathroom.

Since she was dressed in civilian clothes and looked like a boy, she got a lot of stares from the other women. As usual, she ignored them. It was when she was ready to leave, though, that there was trouble. She was washing up at the sink when she heard a sharp intake of breath from behind her. Glancing around, she saw a rather fat woman dressed in fancy clothes staring at her with a look of absolute horror. "There's a boy in the ladies room!" the woman screeched loudly, running from the room.

'Seriously?' Sera thought in annoyance, drying her hands with a handkerchief. "I'm a girl!" she announced to women staring at her, who all decided to go about their business and not get involved.

Since there was no response, Sera left the room angrily. As soon as she stepped out into the restaurant, the fat woman pointed at her and shouted, "There he is officer! That's the peeping tom! Arrest him!"

The police officer, a middle-aged man Sera didn't know, approached her. "If you'll come with me, please, I'm sure we can get this taken care of."

Sera looked between the two of them angrily. She knew she looked like a guy, but she'd never been stopped by the police about it. "I'm a _girl_!" she said calmly, trying with all her might to avoid shouting.

The fat woman just laughed. "No you're not. Girls wear skirts and frilly headbands, not a jacket and fedora. And you don't have a girlish hairstyle. You liar."

Sera glanced over at Conan for assistance, but he wasn't paying her any attention. Instead, he was busy talking with Subaru Okiya, who had apparently arrived while Sera was in the bathroom. Sera needed someone to back her up or else she'd be arrested for kicking the fat woman in the face. "Then how about I call my boyfriend?" she asked sweetly. "He'll tell you I'm a girl!"

The cop, who seemed to be as equally annoyed with the fat woman's antics as Sera, agreed with this, so Sera dialed Conan via his Shinichi phone.

She glanced over at Conan, who had just realized his phone was ringing. He looked at the Caller ID before looking at Sera with a 'wtf' expression. Sera jerked her head to tell him to answer, so he did. "Yeah, what is it?" he asked.

"Well, there's an officer here who thinks I mistakenly went in the ladies room because a woman here told him I was a guy. So I just need someone to confirm I'm a girl."

"They don't believe you're a girl? Why am I not surprised?"

"Oi! This isn't funny!"

There was silence for a moment before a new voice suddenly said, "Sera-san, put me on speaker."

'Subaru-san wants to talk?' she thought in surprise. She complied with his request, allowing him to speak to the cop and the woman.

"Officer, I can personally vouch for Masumi-chan being a girl," said Subaru. "She may not look it and she may not act like it, but she considers herself to be a girl and takes great offense when someone suggests otherwise. She also happens to be a master jeet kune do practitioner."

"Jeet kune do?" the fat woman asked in horror. "You know martial arts?"

"Please don't make me mad," said Sera cheerfully, flexing her bicep. But the woman didn't take the hint.

Forgetting about the cop standing right next to her, the woman said, "Well, how about you _prove_ it?" Then she lunged for Sera, grabbing the bottom of her shirt and lifting it up in an effort to see if Sera really _was_ a girl. The cop lunged forward to try and pull the woman off, but Sera beat him to it by kneeing the woman in the stomach with all her might.

"You _crossdresser_!" the woman screeched as she was escorted away, still wheezing. Luckily she hadn't lifted Sera's shirt high enough to embarrass her, which was probably the only good thing to come out of the ordeal.

Since it was self-defense, the cop took the woman away and Sera got off scot-free after promising to give a statement later. "Well, _that_ was annoying," Sera announced as she returned to her table.

"Maybe you should start stuffing," Conan suggested, making a motion to indicate he was talking about her bust. Sera could tell he was trying hard not to laugh. As angry as she was, she was at least glad she'd taken his mind off of Ran, although it had come at the cost of her own dignity.

"That's not funny!" Sera retorted. Then she turned to Subaru. "And what are you doing here, anyways?"

"I was passing by and I thought I'd stop in and try that new gourmet burger they're offering," he explained. The burger he was holding was half-eaten, but it was indeed that burger. "Conan-kun was sitting by himself, so I thought I'd join you if that's OK."

The other patrons were still staring at them, some of them with their phones out taking pictures, so Sera said, "Well, that's OK, I guess, but maybe we should go eat somewhere else. There are too many eavesdroppers in here."

Seeing she was right, Subaru nodded and gathered up his food. Conan, who apparently wasn't really hungry, just left his.

Once they were outside, they started talking again, but were cut off after a minute by Ran calling Conan. "Yes, Ran-neechan? Yes, I'm heading back soon. Sure, see you then!" When he hung up, he said, "Sorry, but I've got to go. See you later!" He ran off after waving at them, making Sera smile slightly.

"So all those rumors way back when were true after all," Subaru remarked. "You _were_ into a younger guy."

Sera flinched. "What are you talking about?" she responded at once, fighting hard to keep from blushing.

"The guy you mentioned you liked last week; that's him, isn't it?"

"What are you saying, Subaru-san?" Sera asked. "Are you suggesting I'm in love with a little boy? That's crazy talk!"

"If he were really a little boy, then it would be. But we both know he's more than that, don't we?" He said this with a glint in his eye as he polished off the last of the burger.

'Wait, does he _know_?' Sera thought in surprise. "Sorry, but you're wrong," she told him. "That guy I was talking about is my age."

"So wouldn't Shinichi-kun fit that bracket?" Subaru responded, now actively smirking at her.

Sera just stared at him with a mixture of surprise and horror. Her first thought was to question this guy as to how he knew the truth. But then she calmed herself. That could wait; her priority right now was disproving his belief about her.

"Wait, why did you bring up Kudo-kun?" she asked, feigning ignorance. "I thought we were talking about Conan-kun."

Subaru just looked at her silently, not responding. When they reached the next corner, he decided to turn off instead of going straight like Sera was. Then he told her, "The only person you're fooling is yourself, Masumi. The more you doubt yourself, the more you'll keep lying. And a life full of lies is not one you want to live." Then he walked away.

Sera stared after him, his words rushing through her mind. 'What did that mean?' she thought. 'What would he know about living a lie? And why would he call me 'Masumi'?' As she thought, she suddenly recalled his quote from the night of Maya's attack where he'd said they were both at fault 50/50 for withholding information. 'It can't be…' she thought, the reality dawning on her. 'Is he really…Shuu-nii?'

"Wait!" she shouted, turning to look back down the street he'd gone down. However, he had already disappeared.

* * *

Finding out about Subaru is one of three remaining goals I set for this story. The other two won't occur until the end. There are going to be four more chapters and an epilogue, so look forward to that.

I apologize if Sera acted a bit insensitive at the beginning with the whole phone thing, but she just didn't want to see Shinichi and Ran suffer anymore, so she took the initiative and did something about it.

Next chapter will have Ran confronting her father and Conan being informed of Sera's feelings (which he may or may not believe). It'll be here soon!


	17. Realizing The Truth

This is the chapter where the Conan/Sera relationship starts picking up steam. And Conan actually realizes how Sera feels about him! Now how did that happen without him getting OOC?

* * *

Chapter Seventeen

"And just where have you been, Conan-kun?" Ran asked, glaring down at him.

"I was just talking with Sera-no-neechan," he responded. He had hurried back after Ran had called, and it was still pretty early in the afternoon, so he didn't see what all the fuss was about. "Why, did something happen?"

"Well, nothing to do with you," Ran replied vaguely. "It's just Shinichi forgave me for being so mean to him, so I thought I'd try to convince Dad to forgive him too when he gets home. I thought I'd get cold feet if I tried to talk to him myself."

'Come to think of it, he's not here,' Conan thought, glancing around the office. "When's he coming home, then?"

"I don't know. He had to follow someone as part of a job, so it'll probably be pretty soon."

As if on cue, the door burst open and Kogoro marched in. "Oh, what a day!" he complained, plopping down at his desk. "Ran, I need a beer."

But Ran didn't get him one. "Dad, I need to talk with you about something."

Kogoro noticed his daughter's shifty demeanor and instantly got suspicious. "What is it?" he asked, staring at her.

Ran, seeing his anger, clammed up for a moment before taking Conan's hand and getting her strength back. "Well, I talked to Shinichi earlier. He said he forgives me for chasing him out. He wished me luck with Masato-kun, too."

"Oh, is that it?" said Kogoro, looking relieved. "From the look on your face I thought you were going to say you were pregnant or something!" He guffawed a little before he suddenly took in what Ran had just told him. "Wait, that loser detective forgave you? What for; it should've been you forgiving him if someone needed to be forgiven! Not that should you should have forgiven him, though."

"About that," said Ran, "I misunderstood the whole situation because I was so anxious. There's nothing to forgive him for, except for staying away for so long."

"And so now you want to date that college baseball guy? No! I forbid it!"

"Dad!" said Ran sharply, hitting a nearby cabinet with her karate. "I should think I'm fully able to date whoever I want! So you stay out of it! That is, if I _wanted_ to date him, I could."

"Uh, yes ma'am," said Kogoro meekly.

'Scary…' Conan thought.

With that out of the way, Ran turned back to Conan. "Now, how about some dinner, Conan-kun? Is there anything special you want?"

Conan still felt bad, so he just shrugged, not caring. Seieng this, Ran went away to start the food while he sat down on one of the couches and started reading some manga.

Well, he tried to anyways, but his thoughts kept turning back to his and Subaru's conversation. The guy had literally appeared from out of nowhere once Sera had gone to the restroom and started a conversation

"Oh, if it isn't Conan-kun!" Subaru had said. Conan hadn't seen him come in, so he was quite surprised.

"What are you doing here?"

"Just passing through," he'd responded. "I thought I'd try that new burger they've got while I was here. Do you mind if I join you?"

Conan shrugged, so Subaru pulled up a chair. "By the way, who are you here with?" he asked, eating a fry.

"Just Sera-san," Conan replied. "She kind of insisted I come with her."

"So you two are pretty close? You seem pretty fond of each other."

"I guess you could say that. We _have_ become better friends than before."

"You know, it's not often that a woman invites a man to a restaurant somewhere as 'just friends'."

"What are you saying?" Conan asked in surprise.

"Just be careful you don't misunderstand the situation," Subaru replied, opening one eye a little more and staring at him. The stare made Conan shiver. They hadn't continued their conversation because Sera had called Conan's phone then asking for assistance.

'Just what did he mean?' Conan thought, recalling the conversation. 'It's not the first time he's said something cryptic to me about her. What exactly is he getting at?'

XXX

The following day, Conan decided to ask someone about it. There were plenty of people he could probably ask, but he'd rather avoid being teased about it. It had to be someone that wouldn't laugh or tease him and would just give him more or less a straight answer. Unfortunately, there was only one person who fit that description: Ran.

Conan was hesitant about asking Ran because he still hadn't sorted out his feelings for her yet. He'd given her his blessing to date someone else, but he hadn't really wanted to. Eventually, logic won out and he decided to go ahead and speak to Ran.

He got his chance that afternoon. "Ran-neechan?" he asked, tugging on her skirt to get her attention.

"What is it, Conan-kun?" she asked kindly. Conan beckoned for her to bend over so he could ask his question.

"I read something earlier that I don't really understand, so I was wondering if you could explain it to me," he whispered.

"What is it, then?" she asked, taking on a serious expression.

Taking a deep breath, he began, "Well, the story is about two people, a boy and a girl, going to a restaurant. The girl invited the boy, but they're both just friends. Well, acquaintances really. Anyways, while they're there, the girl goes to the bathroom and an older boy comes in. The two boys begin talking, and the older boy says this: 'It's not often that a woman invites a man to a restaurant somewhere as 'just friends'. Be careful you don't misunderstand the situation.' When he said that, what did he mean?"

Ran thought for a moment before saying, "Well, the older boy sounds like an anti-shipper to me. It almost sounds protective, like an overprotective older brother. Are they siblings?"

"Maybe…" Conan shrugged.

"Well, that would probably explain it," said Ran. "If they weren't siblings, then there might be another explanation: the older guy likes the girl and is just too afraid to admit it. But it would be one-sided because girls never invite guys out anywhere like that unless they like them. It's basically a date, but a 'friend date'. So the older guy would be out of luck. Any other questions?"

"No, I think that covers it," said Conan, smiling. Ran smiled back, then stood up and walked away. 'Is that really what's going on here?' Conan thought. 'If Ran's right, and Sera does like me like that, then how do I feel about her?' Normally he would've brushed off the fact that someone had feelings for him, since he had always liked Ran and nothing anybody said could change that. He'd been doing that for years. In actuality, he'd never actually considered whether he might have feelings for someone else.

"Oh, one more thing, Conan-kun!" Ran called over to him. "For the first guy in your story, I'd suggest he go for it!"

'Well, no matter how I feel, it's not like it'll hurt anything, right?' Conan thought. 'After all, I do look like a kid, so I don't have to worry about Ran.' Yeah, he wasn't really worried about Ran or Sera. What he most worried about was Subaru. That was a man Conan definitely didn't want as an enemy.

XXX

Sera was busy trying to call her brother, but was having no success. 'Come on, Kichi-nii, pick up,' she thought irritably. Eventually she had to give up. 'Maybe he's on a date or something?' she thought dismissively.

"So, who are we going to see?" her 'friend' asked, looking bored. "I know perfectly well you didn't drag me all the way to Beika just to get parfaits. And this isn't the way to the bus station. You know I was hoping to watch the shogi match today."

"Yeah, you guessed right," Sera confirmed. "I didn't tell him we were coming, but once he sees you he should let us in. After all, it's been a while since you've seen each other."

Looking around, the girl said, "This is the way to Kudo-kun's house, isn't it? Is that why you brought me? You want a witness when you confess your feelings?"

"Of course not!" said Sera, her cheeks getting hot. "We're going to see the guy living in Kudo-kun's house, Okiya Subaru-san!"

"Okiya Subaru? Sorry, but I've never met him. So why are you dragging me along?"

"Sorry, but that's a secret!" Sera grinned.

"If you're going to see Subaru-san, he isn't there right now," a young voice suddenly butted in. The two girls had been so busy talking, they hadn't realized they'd run into two of Conan's friends. It was the two girls, Ayumi and Haibara, carrying bags of groceries. Ayumi had been the one who had spoken while Haibara was watching them silently, hiding her eyes under the bill of her ballcap.

"Oh, hello!" said Sera brightly. "Are you having a barbecue tonight?"

"Of course!" said Ayumi. "But Sera-oneesan, why are you looking for Subaru-san?"

"Oh, we were in the area so we just thought we'd say 'hi'," Sera replied.

"Oh, okay. But who are you?" She had just noticed Sera's 'friend', who hid herself behind Sera's legs the moment Ayumi had addressed her.

"Sorry, she's shy," Sera apologized as response to Ayumi's questioning glance. "Well, I'll let you two go cook your dinner, so see you later!"

"OK, bye-bye!" said Ayumi, waving as the two walked away.

There was silence for a few minutes after the two groups split up. Eventually, Sera's companion broke the silence. "That little girl in the hat seemed kind of familiar. Have I met her before?"

"No, I don't think so. You probably saw her picture in some of my stuff."

"Oh, so she's around my age?"

"She's probably closer to Kudo-kun's age than yours," Sera grinned. "But Kudo-kun seems pretty protective of her, and I think she's afraid of me, so I've never really talked with her." She'd been hoping to talk with her for a while, but after learning the truth from Conan, she'd pretty much dropped it. He hadn't told her anything about Haibara, but she'd deduced her true role and why he was so protective of her. The other reason she'd wanted to talk to her was to find out information about her late brother, but now that was also unnecessary.

"So, someone Kudo-kun is protective of, huh? Does that mean you have a rival?"

"What do you mean _rival_? It's not like I…"

"Really, you're going to play dumb with _me_?"

Suddenly Sera's phone rang, indicating she'd gotten a new text message, making her jump in surprise since she'd been so flustered by the conversation. "Oh, it's Kudo-kun," she muttered, recovering and checking what he'd said. Reading it, she suddenly felt her face flush.

"What?" her 'friend' asked, noting her expression. Sera just stared at the message like she couldn't believe what it said, so the girl just took it from her and read what it said out loud. "I just wanted to thank you for what you did for me. I'll be free this weekend, so is there anything special you'd like to do?"

Hearing it read out loud made Sera blush even more. "OK, that's enough," she said, flustered. She tried to take the phone back, but the girl kept it out of reach.

"This is a date request, isn't it? You've been tossing out mixed signals again, haven't you?"

"Of course I haven't!" Sera retorted. "He just needed a push to talk to Ran-chan is all, so I gave him that. But I feel guilty about splitting them up, though."

"That type of wishy-washy thinking is how those two split up in the first place. Be more assertive and quit backing off."

"You think I'm _not_ assertive?" Sera asked in surprise.

"Not when it comes to trusting your heart and taking risks. You'd rather watch from a distance instead of taking the initiative."

"Do you really think that? I talk to Kudo-kun all the time; I don't watch from a distance."

"I wasn't being literal. Going off that, though, prove me wrong. Accept the date."

"Oi, what are saying? Weren't you the one who was always saying I shouldn't trust him?"

"That was before I met him myself. If you like that boy, go on the date and see where it leads you. You won't get anywhere by being indecisive."

"You'd…really be OK with this?"

"As long as you don't forget our mission. That comes first."

"OK, OK," said Sera. "Now, give me my phone back so I can say something."

"About that, while you were blushing like crazy earlier I went ahead and responded for you."

"WHAT? Why would you do that?"

The girl just looked at Sera before giving the phone back. "Because you're terrible at this kind of thing." Pointing at the screen, she said, "Read and learn."

Sera read the sent message, which said, 'Oh, you don't really have to do that! But since you offered, how about the Edogawa Ranpo exhibit down at the literary museum? It's supposed to have a first-edition of one of his novels on display, so I thought you might like it. What do you say?'

"Well, you're going right?" the girl asked. "The two of you are detectives, so you should both enjoy it."

"Uh, sure," Sera replied, taken aback by the abruptness of it all. And she _had_ wanted to go to the exhibition.

Her phone buzzed again, showing Conan was happy to go. "Well, it looks like we have some work to do," her 'friend' said, smirking.

"Work? What kind of work?"

"Well, you don't go on dates dressed like you normally would. You have to dress up."

"And how am I supposed to do that? I didn't bring any nice clothes."

"That _is_ a problem. And you can't wear a dress because you'd never fill it out."

"I wouldn't wear a dress to a museum anyways!" Sera reminded her.

The girl's face suddenly lit up. After coughing twice, she said, "You know, I think we can make this work. You just have to do exactly what I say."

* * *

OK, I may have gone a little overboard with their conversation, but I was having too much fun writing it. Those types of over-the-top conversations are one of the reasons why I enjoy writing so much. 'Kichi-nii' has almost 100% been confirmed to be her middle brother in the manga by this point, so I went ahead and used his name. It's not a big deal to me because he doesn't make a physical appearance.

Next chapter is the date, which will hopefully go relatively smoothly and two characters we haven't seen yet make cameos!


	18. Totally Not a Date

And here comes the date! Except it's not really a date, as they both keep insisting. What is it about detectives that make them highly attuned to everything in the world except themselves, anyways? My original novel I've been working on features a teenage detective and she has the exact same problem. XD

* * *

Chapter Eighteen

"So, are you going to tell me the truth or keep lying to me?" Haibara asked, feeling annoyed.

"Oh, come on!" Conan responded. "Why do you keep badgering me? I'm just going to see an exhibition. What's to tell?"

"I want you to admit it's a date," Haibara said, glaring at him. They were at school doing busywork, but since the entire class was talking loudly it was easy to have a conversation. Conan had just turned down the kids' invitation for camping that weekend, so now Haibara was grilling him about it, especially since she'd planned the trip this time.

"I won't because that's not what it is," said Conan. "She's been helping me deal with the whole Ran situation, so I thought I'd return the favor. Besides, it's an exhibition on Edogawa Ranpo; who goes on a date to that?"

He had a point, but she was still plenty suspicious. Plus, for all the emotional support he'd given her since she'd known him, she was a bit hurt he hadn't relied on her for some in return when he'd needed it.

That was when she decided to be a bit cheeky. "Well, if it's not a date, you won't mind if the four of us go along, right?" she asked, smirking.

Conan's reaction was immediate. "What do you think you're saying?" he whispered, keeping an eye on the kids. "This is supposed to be a show of thanks from me. It would defeat the purpose if I brought a bunch of kids along!"

"Oh, lighten up, Kudo-kun; I was kidding. I'm not about to crash your date."

"It's not a date!" Conan insisted again, looking very embarrassed.

'Sure it isn't,' Haibara thought. 'But still, you're moving on awfully quickly, aren't you Kudo-kun? I wonder what that girl said to him to make him act like this?'

"So, why did you say you can't come tomorrow?" Ayumi asked Conan suddenly. The three kids had stalled their conversation with Conan to debate the connotations of a 'secret meeting', but they were done now. The 'date' was that morning while the trip would start the night after, so the kids were kind of sad he wouldn't be coming along.

"Oh, I promised to meet a friend," said Conan vaguely.

"Is she cute?" Genta asked, elbowing Conan.

"It's Sera-san," Haibara supplied.

"Eh!" Ayumi said loudly. "Conan-kun likes older girls?"

"Of course not!" said Conan. "We're just friends is all!"

Ayumi still looked dejected, so Mitsuhiko stepped up. "Conan-kun, you're making Ayumi-chan cry."

"Apologize to Ayumi!" Genta added loudly.

"Don't worry about him, Yoshida-san," said Haibara, defusing the situation before all the shouting attracted the teacher. "We'll have fun without him."

"Sure!" said Ayumi, cheering up at once. "Mitsuhiko-kun and Genta-kun will come too, right?"

"Of course!" the boys replied, their anger at Conan forgotten. The three began chatting eagerly amongst themselves.

"Haibara, why are you doing this?" Conan asked suddenly, making her flinch internally.

'Eh?' she thought. 'Don't tell me he actually noticed? No, I'm giving him too much credit; he'd never notice something like that.' "What exactly am I doing, exactly?" she asked semi-rudely.

"Oh, it's just that you're acting a bit weird. Used to when we talked about Ran you didn't seem to really care about it, but today you've been trying to wheedle information out of me since we got to class."

"How rude! I don't _wheedle_." Inside, however, she was panicking. 'Great, he _did_ notice! What now?' Then she realized what she was doing and composed herself. "Kudo-kun," she began. "I'm just making sure you know what you're getting yourself into. That girl is trouble."

"Maybe," said Conan. "But she doesn't really seem to be a bad person. She just sticks her nose into a lot of things she shouldn't."

"Oh, just listen to you talk about your girlfriend," Haibara teased.

"Oi! That's enough of that!" said Conan, eyeing the kids.

Conan went back to his work, but Haibara couldn't really concentrate. 'Kudo-kun, I hope you know what you're getting into,' she thought.

XXX

Conan arrived at the museum early, so he went in the lobby and looked at the brochure while he waited. The exhibition they were there to see was at the back of the main floor in the temporary exhibit gallery.

"Oh, if it isn't Conan-kun!" a voice said suddenly.

"Kobayashi-sensei and Shiratori-keibu!" said Conan, looking up. "What are you doing here?"

"We came to look at the Edogawa Ranpo exhibit!" Miss Kobayashi said happily. "Shiratori-kun had a day off, so he offered to take me. Are you guys here for it, too?"

"You guys?" Conan asked, glancing around anxiously. Luckily, there wasn't anybody around he knew. "Actually, sensei, I'm here to meet a friend."

"Oh, you mean like a date?" she asked excitedly.

"No, it's not a date," said Conan. He was getting tired of repeating it.

Miss Kobayashi looked disappointed but didn't pry further. "Well, I hope we'll see you inside!" she waved, accompanying Shiratori into the museum.

Conan only had to wait another minute or two before Sera arrived. "Hello!" she called, waving at him from the door. "Did you wait long?"

"Nah," he said as she joined him. "I was just a little early."

Sera got a brochure of her own and they began walking to the exhibit. "So, can I ask you a question?" Sera asked suddenly, looking a little embarrassed, which was an odd look for her. "Do I look different to you?"

"Different?" Conan asked. He took a good look at her, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. "Is that a new jacket?" he said at last, desperate to have something to say.

"Does it look that way?" Sera asked, glancing down at the jacket. She was wearing a brown jacket over a blue shirt, along with a pair of blue jeans and tennis shoes. She wasn't wearing her usual hat for some reason. "Actually you're right! I saw it in the store and figured it would match these jeans really well, so I got it. But that wasn't really what I was getting at, though. You really don't see it?"

Conan looked her up and down again, and eventually he noticed what she was getting at. It was hard to see because the jacket wasn't zipped up so it wasn't really defined. "You took me seriously?" he asked hesitantly, feeling very embarrassed.

Now it was Sera's turn to be embarrassed. "Yeah, she forced me to stuff because she thought it was date. I was kind of hoping nobody would notice."

'Then why did you bring it up?' Conan thought in annoyance.

"Well, if you didn't notice until I asked, that means no one else will notice, either," said Sera confidently. "Now, how about the exhibit?"

The exhibit itself was actually pretty nice. There were three different parts: one talking about the author's life and work, one detailing the Kogoro Akechi stories, and one dealing with everything else. The highlight of the exhibit was the first edition of the first Akechi novel, which was sealed in a glass case and surrounded by visitors.

Because it was so much more crowded, it turned into the last thing the two of them went to see. "Ugh, how are supposed to squeeze in there?" Sera asked in exasperation. "I'm not standing in line for half an hour to see a book no matter how much I want to see it."

"How do you plan on seeing the book, then? It won't come to you."

"That _is_ a problem," said Sera, putting a hand on her chin and thinking. "How about this, then? We'll go get lunch from the cafeteria early, and then come back to see this while everyone else is at lunch. The line won't be nearly as long then."

Conan checked his watch. "It's 11:15 now, so while it's still a little early, it's close enough. Are you actually hungry, though?"

"I'm a teenager; of course I'm hungry!" Sera replied, grinning at him. "So the real question is whether you're hungry yet."

"Well, not really, so do you want to look around at another exhibit before we go eat?"

Sera thought about it, then looked at the museum map. "Well, there's an exhibit upstairs on Shakespeare."

"Uh, no thanks," said Conan.

"Oh, it's Conan-kun again!" a voice said. The two looked up to see Miss Kobayashi and Inspector Shiratori leaving the crowd around the book. "Are you enjoying the exhibit?" Miss Kobayashi asked, bending over to look at him.

"Yes, Sensei!" said Conan childishly. "They've got _so_ much stuff! Did you see the book?"

"Of course!" she replied. "You can't be an Akechi fan and come here without seeing that! Have you seen it yet?"

"We were going to get lunch first and come back later when the line goes down. Right, Sera-no-neechan?"

"Oh, right!" Sera replied. "So you're his teacher? Are you here on a date?"

"Yes and yes!" Miss Kobayashi smiled. "But who are you? Are you a friend of Ran-chan?"

"I'm Sera Masumi," she replied, introducing herself. "Ran-chan didn't care about coming, so I took her place. Conan-kun really wanted to come and look around."

Their conversation had gotten Shiratori's attention. "Did you say your name was Sera? Takagi said something about a detective named Sera. Is that you?"

"Oh, you know Takagi-keiji?" Sera asked.

"This is Shiratori-keibu, Kobayashi-sensei's boyfriend," said Conan. "He works in Division One with Takagi-keiji and Megure-keibu."

"So that's how you know each other," said Sera. "Well, nice to meet you."

"Likewise," said Shiratori politely.

"Say, how about we all go get lunch together?" Miss Kobayashi said suddenly, making both Shiratori and Sera flinch.

"Sumiko-san, should we really invite them to join us when we're on a date?" Shiratori whispered.

"Oh, why not?" she asked. "The more the merrier!"

'What's up with her?' Conan thought. 'She isn't usually this pushy.'

Luckily Sera stepped in. "We appreciate the offer, but since you're on a date we don't really want to impose. Right, Conan-kun?"

"Yeah," said Conan, agreeing. Hearing this, Shiratori looked very relieved.

"Well, you know where we are if you want to join us!" she said, waving at the two left.

"What was that about?" Conan asked once they were out of earshot.

"Sounds like somebody likes you," Sera teased.

"Oh hush," Conan muttered, making Sera grin. "Now, weren't we going to get lunch?"

XXX

Sera was enjoying herself immensely. It might not have been an actual 'date', and she'd never say it was, but just being alone with Conan with nobody else around was very pleasant. He didn't have to hide who he was, so they could talk like adults. That was the main reason she'd sent his teacher away. She was also enjoying just being able to have fun for a change instead of having to chase off reporters that were interested in her kicking the fat woman the other day. The rich woman had gone to the press about it, but the story hadn't really taken off because Sera had scared the reporters so much they hadn't been able to quote her.

She and Conan bought sandwiches from the museum's restaurant and they sat down at a table to eat them. "You got iced coffee with a sandwich for lunch?" Sera asked in surprise. "No wonder the cashier looked at us weird."

"What's wrong with that?" Conan asked. "I get coffee a lot."

"Well, sure, but you look like a kid, remember? You getting coffee is a lot weirder than me."

"Is that why you got a soda, then?" Conan asked, sipping his drink.

"So? I like soda, and there's nothing wrong with it!"

"Maybe not, but you look like a kid compared to me," he grinned.

"Oh be quiet!" Sera snapped, grinning back. Then she decided to ask the question. "So, why'd you invite me out today?" she asked sweetly.

Conan's face took on a look of surprise. "You helped me with Ran, so I thought I'd return the favor. Didn't I explain that?"

'Well, yeah, but this still feels like a date,' Sera thought. "Well, that's what you say, but is that really what you mean?"

"What are you talking about?" he asked confusedly.

"You invited a girl out somewhere, which most people would interpret as a date. So what I'm asking is whether that was your intention or not."

Now there was a look of panic on his face, which made Sera smirk inside. 'Good, he's nervous. Maybe he'll admit something.'

But Conan didn't admit to anything. Instead he turned the question around on her. "Do _you_ think this is a date?"

Sera had been expecting him to stutter awkwardly and then deny it. Now she was in a pickle. She wasn't about to let her feelings out into the air since that would just embarrass them both and he most likely didn't feel the same way. So she went the easy route. "Well, I think this is a date as much as you do, Kudo-kun," she said.

"Well, I guess that clears that up, then," he replied. He had some expression on his face that Sera couldn't identify, which made her think that she might've screwed up again.

"Kudo-kun, are you OK?" she asked, worried.

"Hmm?" he said, looking back up at her. "Yeah, I'm fine. I guess the caffeine just kicked in."

"What did I tell you about drinking coffee?" she teased, handing him a napkin so he could wipe his face where mayonnaise had splattered on it. Suddenly she felt a sharp glare headed her way. She spun around, looking around the room for any sign of spies. A quick glance-over didn't show anybody suspicious.

"What's the matter?" Conan asked in alarm.

"It felt like someone was watching us," said Sera, still looking around suspiciously. Conan's teacher and her boyfriend the cop were busy talking at a table across the room, so it obviously wasn't them.

Conan scanned the room, too, but he didn't see anybody either. "I don't see anybody I know, but they might be wearing a disguise or something. "But if there is someone following us, it'll be easy to see who they are. Let's go back to the Ranpo exhibit, and there we can keep an eye on the door. Since everybody will be leaving for lunch, it'll be easy to see who they are since there won't be many people coming in."

"That's as good a plan as any, I guess," Sera agreed. They finished their food and drink in silence and then went back to the exhibit. The line had indeed gone down by now, and at the rate it was moving it wouldn't take more than ten minutes to see it. They joined the end of the line, keeping an eye on the door.

There weren't that many people that came in. First was a young couple in their twenties, who seemed to be very outgoing and annoyingly lovey-dovey. Second was a group of three high schoolers, who had notebooks and seemed to be there for a school project. The next people were a man and his young son, who was around the age Conan appeared to be. The two wore identical ballcaps and sunglasses and acted very stoically. The next group was a young mother and her two daughters, who were both older than Conan. The two girls were acting very rowdy and it was all the mother could do to keep them in check.

"So, did you see the suspicious people?" Conan asked.

"Yeah," Sera replied. "Wearing sunglasses indoors is a bit conspicuous, though. I wonder what they were thinking?"

"They probably weren't planning to get caught by us," said Conan.

"Maybe…" said Sera. She had a feeling she knew who the adult was, but who was the kid? She figured it was somebody Conan knew, but which of them would care enough about it? Then she remembered what Yukiko had said about another girl knowing the truth about Conan and being jealous of her. There was only one of his friends that acted more mature than normal. While she'd never really had a conversation with the girl, she'd heard enough about her to know what she was like. As for the man, there was no question who he was. 'Are you really that worried about me, Shuu-nii?' she thought. 'And why are you teaming up with that girl, anyways?'

* * *

Well at least the interlopers gave them their space, unlike in the canon stories where people are always getting interrupted in sensitive moments.

The next chapter features the return of Heiji via phone and Maya makes a surprise appearance. And things are heating up for Sera because the whole fat woman debacle is coming back to bite her.

On a side note, there are only three chapters left in this story, the two main ones and the epilogue. They're more or less done at this point, so would you like me to upload one a day until the end or keep with my current schedule or uploading every 2-4 days? The delay was necessary before because I needed time to get ahead, but it's not an issue now I hit the end. Give me a review or shoot me a PM if you have an opinion on this.


	19. Bad Article

This is the transition chapter between the 'date' and the finale. Hopefully you'll enjoy it, since it features a new way of instantly ending arguments. XD

My school had it's fall break during the first half of this week, which is why I didn't post this earlier even though it was already done.

* * *

Chapter Nineteen

"So, how's it going Kudo?" Heiji asked.

"Fine, I guess," Conan replied. Heiji had been messaging him every day since he'd left out of worry/curiosity, but he'd told Heiji earlier to not call him during the day since he'd be at the exhibit with Sera. That had apparently seemed a bit odd to Heiji, because now he thought he'd been on a date and was bugging him about it.

"Don't give me that! You deliberately told me earlier to not call or text because you'd be busy. That means you were with your gal, right? Did you get rid of that other guy or something?"

"Nope. I made peace with Ran, though, so there is that. Sera's been on my case about it, so I went ahead and let her know I don't hold any sort of grudge."

"Oh, so you weren't out on a date? That's what Kazuha said it probably was."

"Kazuha said that?" Conan asked.

There was a scuffle on the other end of the line for a moment before someone started talking again. "Kudo-kun, who were you out on a date with today?" Kazuha asked in a serious tone.

'Where she'd come from?' Conan thought, scrambling for the voice changer. "Why do you think it was a date?" he responded quickly, speaking in his adult voice.

"What else would it be?" Kazuha asked loudly. "Ran-chan chose somebody else so now you're dating someone else to get back at her, right?"

"Oi, don't go assuming things like that! I was just out with a friend and I didn't want Hattori calling and giving them the wrong idea!"

"What do mean the 'wrong idea'? You're both guys! Unless…it was Sera-san, wasn't it?"

Conan panicked out of shock. "Where'd that come from?" he responded quickly.

"Well, I know you're into girls, so the only thing that would give someone the wrong idea if you talked to Heiji would be someone who both knew Heiji and had something in common with him. That means you were on a date with Sera-san, another detective!"

Suddenly Heiji was back on the phone. "So you're into the detective girl now? That's a big shift. What do ya like about her?"

"Don't go jumping to conclusions!" said Conan.

"Well, let's see," said Heiji. "What does she have that's similar? Not her boobs, that's for sure! OW!" When he'd made the rude joke, a loud slap had echoed through the phone from Kazuha hitting him. "It's 'cause she's feisty, isn't it?" Heiji said eventually once Kazuha had quit chewing him out.

"Like I said; it's not like that!" Conan repeated. "It was just a friend thing."

"If you say so, Kudo," said Heiji, apparently giving in. "But since Kazuha has your new gal's number, it'll only take a minute to confirm yes or no."

"She'll say the same thing," said Conan huffily. "It wasn't a date!" Angrily, he hung up the phone. Why did everyone always have to insist on pairing him up with someone? More than that, why did everyone always assume that hanging out with any female friend _anywhere_ constituted a date? But then again, had it actually been a date at all? Sure, he'd enjoyed himself, and he'd enjoyed her company, but did that actually mean anything?

Done with the conversation, he headed back to the Detective Agency for the night. The rest of the kids were out camping, so there was no point in confronting Haibara over what had happened earlier. "Oh, how was your trip to the museum?" Ran asked cheerfully, poking her head out of the kitchen.

"Pretty nice, actually," said Conan. "Wait, how do you know about that?"

"Oh, Ai-chan mentioned it earlier. I asked her why you weren't going camping with them, and she said you went to the museum on a date. So, who is she? Is she pretty?" She left the kitchen completely and bent down so she was staring him in the face.

'That little…' Conan thought, annoyed. Quickly salvaging the situation, he said, "I think she misunderstood. Sera-no-neechan wanted to go, and I was pretty interested, so I went with her."

"You went with Sera-chan?" Ran asked. She looked kind of hurt for a moment for some reason. "Well, I hope you enjoyed yourself, Conan-kun."

'What was that about?' Conan wondered.

"Ran-chan!" a voice called from the kitchen. Maya emerged, carrying a spatula and wearing an apron. A smell of something burning was coming from the kitchen. "I tried to do what you said, but it all screwed up!"

"Hey, it's all right," said Ran soothingly. "Here, show me what you did and let's try to salvage it."

A side effect of Ran calming Maya down so well the week before was that Maya had transferred her immense feelings of adoration from Masato to Ran. Unlike Masato, Ran was fully aware of this, but was nice enough about it that Maya always remained calm. Masato had always just brushed her off, which was probably the trigger that had made Maya snap. With Ran around, that would never happen again.

Both Conan and Kogoro were antsy about allowing Maya in the apartment, but Ran had told them off and they hadn't questioned it again, at least not openly.

Suddenly the front door burst open and Sera marched in, shaking with anger. Conan was instantly wary. 'Don't tell me those two actually called her,' he thought in horror.

Fortunately for him, it was about something else. Sera stopped in front of Kogoro, who had been busy reading the paper, and shouted, "Just what do you think you're DOING?"

"What's the matter Sera-chan?" Ran asked in alarm, rushing into the room. Kogoro looked like he wanted to disappear into the floor.

"Your father here gave a statement to a journalist earlier claiming I'm into shotacon!" she shouted, pointing to Kogoro's discarded paper. "I've been getting calls from other shotas all evening! It's really annoying!"

Kogoro looked very uncomfortable. Unlike Ran, Sera didn't have the little issue of 'family' standing in her way if she wanted to truly beat him up. "They might have taken what I said out of context," he said eventually. "After that scene you made at the restaurant the other day, a reporter came to talk to me about you and I said you were close to the kid. I never said you were into shotacon…"

Sera just pointed at a line in the paper, which was a direct quote from Kogoro saying she was. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kick your face in right now!"

Conan watched the events with a mixture of horror and amusement. Ran tried to defuse the situation by stepping between them, but Sera brushed her off.

"STOP IT!" Maya shouted suddenly, making everybody stop what they were doing and look at her. None of them had noticed her come in. Everyone knew what would happen if she got too distressed, so that effectively put an end to the argument.

"We'll finish this later," Sera growled to Kogoro before stalking out.

XXX

When Sera went to school the next week, everybody was whispering about her. This is what she'd been afraid of when she'd first seen the article. It had caused her reputation to take a nose dive practically overnight, and she didn't particularly like it. It was basically the reverse of all the rumors from the beginning. Then, they'd thought she'd been seeing a guy when she hadn't. Now, when she actually had a chance with Shinichi, they thought she was into his younger form, Conan, instead.

There was only one course of action she could take to prove the rumors wrong. That was to actually prove she was into a teenager. To do that, she'd have to get someone to either pretend to be a boyfriend or actually get herself a boyfriend. The first person to pop into her head was Conan/Shinichi, but she knew he'd never agree to it. Plus, he was the source of the problem, so unless he came back to himself that was the end of that idea.

'But what if he did come back to himself?' she thought. She knew he wasn't a chemist, so the antidote probably came from someone else. The fact he didn't come back to himself very frequently meant that whoever that someone was had tight control over it. From what she knew about him and his friends, it didn't exactly take a genius to figure out who that person was. After all, she'd been wanting to talk to the girl for a while now.

That afternoon, ignoring the various insults thrown her way, she headed to Professor Agasa's house. She killed time in an arcade to give her target time to get home. When Sera deemed the time was right, she completed her journey and rang the bell.

"Yes, what is it?" Professor Agasa asked through the speaker.

"It's Sera," she replied. "Is Haibara-san home yet?"

"Ai-kun? Well, actually…no, no she isn't."

"She isn't waving her arms at you and begging you to lie, is she?" Sera asked knowingly. She knew the girl didn't trust her and probably wouldn't want to talk, but she was her only option right now.

"Uh, no," said Agasa hesitantly. "Ai-kun's out with her friends right now, so…"

"Well, could you pass on a message for me, then?" Sera asked. "I need to speak with her as soon as possible about Kudo-kun."

It wasn't technically a lie, but she was making it sound more urgent than it was. There was silence for a moment before a girl's voice came out of the speaker. "What's this about?" she asked suspiciously.

"I, uh, need a favor from you," Sera told her. "Could I come in? It's a little weird to talk like this."

There was another silence for a moment before Haibara gave in. "Fine, come in then."

'That was easier than I thought it'd be,' Sera thought as she opened the gate and walked to the front door. Haibara opened the door silently and allowed Sera to enter. As she took a seat on the couch inside, Sera noticed that the girl kept a hand on her watch at all times. 'Does her watch have a tranquilizer in it, too?' she wondered.

"So? What do you want?" Haibara asked, taking a seat.

Sera had been so preoccupied with getting a meeting that she hadn't really thought about what to say. "Well, this might seem a bit selfish of me, but I need a favor from you. Will you hear me out?" Haibara didn't respond, preferring instead to stare her down. Taking that as an affirmative, she continued, "I don't know if you've seen the news lately, but there was an article about me that was rather…unflattering."

"I saw it," said Haibara quietly. "What about it?"

"Well, it's been making my life miserable at school and I'm worried the cops will try to arrest me or something. I need to prove the article is wrong to everyone I know."

"So go get a boyfriend," said Haibara. "Or a girlfriend." Suddenly her expression changed. "Don't tell me you want to change their opinions by making people think you're a lolicon! Is that why you're bugging me?"

"What? No! I just need someone who still respects me to pretend to be a boyfriend so that people will see the article was wrong!"

"Then why do you need me?" Haibara asked flatly.

"I need you to give one of those antidotes to Kudo-kun," Sera replied, completely dropping her feistiness. "Just for a day, though. That should be long enough."

Haibara just stared at her. "NO," she said firmly after ten seconds of stunned silence.

Sera had been expecting that, but she had a plan to try to get the girl to help. "Well, I guess that confirms that!" she said cheerfully.

"What?" Haibara asked in surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"Your opinion of me, of course! I always thought you had something against me, and now I know it's true!"

Haibara looked very surprised. "Fine, I don't really trust you," she admitted. "But you don't need to sound so happy about it."

"Who says I'm happy? I always sound cheerful whether I actually am or not!"

Sera smirked as Haibara's face took on an impassive expression. "So you're just pretending to be happy?" she said at last.

"Maybe," Sera said mysteriously. "But that doesn't really matter, does it? All I need is a favor from you, and in return I'll keep your secret."

"What secret?" Haibara asked at once.

"That you and Subaru-san were following us at the museum the other day. You don't want Kudo-kun to find out about that, right?" Conan already knew, of course, but Haibara didn't know that.

Her reaction was immediate. She quickly averted her eyes and said, "That doesn't sound like much of a secret to _me_."

"Maybe not, but it's still something you'd rather keep to yourself right?" she said, winking. Her plan complete, she stood up and prepared to leave. "Just think about it, OK? I'm kind of desperate here." Without waiting for an answer, she left.

* * *

OK, I admit Sera's acting a bit OOC here, but it's because she's nervous about the newspaper thing. And the 'date' made her a little bolder than she might otherwise be.

Next chapter, I'm not giving you any hints at all! OK, I'll give you one. The following code/riddle will feature during the next chapter. Normally I put codes at the end of chapters and let you figure it out from there, but since I'm too nice to break up the chapter midway and leave you in MORE suspense, I'll put it here early and let you give it a whirl. It'll be officially introduced early next chapter, but you won't get any new clues between now and then apart from the background for _why_ she's giving him a code, so feel free to start guessing.

The code is from Sera to Conan/Shinichi. I wonder what she wants? The keyword is 'Wizard'.

 _"When the moon rises at night, what do you see? Is it the work of a poet or a mark of danger?_

 _But when it rises during the day, it looks different. It just hangs there, taunting you with unknown secrets._

 _Like the moon, I have secrets to share. I'll share this with one person, just one._

 _At the place where it all started is where this shall be shared, at the start of the false age."_


	20. The Confession, Hopefully

The big Shinichi vs. Sera confrontation happens this chapter. So is anybody going to confess, or will somebody act stupid and not realize the other person is confessing? And does Shinichi actually reciprocate her feelings? Oh, and try to solve the code before you start the section after it's introduced if you're into that kind of thing.

Warning: This chapter contains four scenes and is therefore LONG.

* * *

Chapter Twenty

"What's up guys?" Shinichi asked as he walked into his classroom. Haibara had allowed him to test out a new antidote, and he had taken advantage of it at once.

All the conversation in the room died instantly as all eyes turned to him. "Kudo!" a guy shouted, which prompted everyone else to start yelling, too. Three guys got up and dragged him into the room, where he got mobbed by the rest of them.

"How've you been holding up?"

"You broke up with Ran-chan, right?"

"Did you get a new girl?"

"Is she cute?"

"GUYS!" Shinichi said loudly, cutting off their stream of questions. "I'm only back for the day, I don't have a girlfriend, and I feel really bad about Ran, OK?"

His bluntness shut them all up. The guys just looked at him for a moment before asking, "So anyways, now you're back, what's your plan?"

"My plan?"

"Yeah, you're here for a reason, right?"

Shinichi was spared from answering by the door sliding open again as Ran and Sonoko entered. Ran stopped dead when she saw Shinichi was there. "You're here to take back Ran-chan, huh?" a guy asked, grinning.

"No, I'm not!" Shinichi exclaimed, feeling annoyed as Ran recovered and sat down. "I'm here because I wanted a change of pace, OK?"

"Whatever," the guys said, shrugging. "But you did do some investigation into what we asked, right?"

"About what?"

"Sera-san, of course! We asked you to look into the guy she was into! Did you figure out who it was? Rumor has it the guy is actually a little kid!"

'Crap, I forgot,' he thought. With everything that had happened since then, it hadn't even crossed his mind. At least he was familiar enough with her to know that all the rumors were false. Well, technically they were false; although if she really _was_ into him, he could see why some people might get the wrong idea. "I looked into the rumors, and they're actually false. The guy's our age."

"So there _is_ a guy?" they asked, looking depressed.

"Well, she hasn't told him anything yet, so it's not like you're out of luck."

They didn't get a chance to continue their conversation because the teacher entered the room to start class. Sera still hadn't arrived, which was a bit odd. He was pretty disappointed she hadn't shown up, since he'd wanted to talk with her since the last time they'd chatted was at the museum. "Shinichi," Ran whispered to him once class started.

"Ran," he replied. The atmosphere was a bit awkward between them, but at least it wasn't difficult to talk. "How're you doing?"

"OK, I guess," she said. "It's been a little difficult, but I'm getting through it. I made a new friend, so that helps. Her name is Maya and she's really sweet. Just don't make her mad, though; she has a bit of a temper."

"Yeah, Conan told me. There was a misunderstanding, right?"

"Yeah, that's what it was! She was just a little confused!" Ran replied, smiling. "Speaking of friends, I wonder where Sera-chan is? It's not like her to be late. How about I text her?"

Shinichi turned back to the lesson as Ran sent the message. He wondered what exactly was going on; she was too emotionally resilient to be that badly affected by the nasty rumors like someone like Ran or Sonoko would be, wasn't she? It took about twenty minutes for Ran's phone to buzz. "She says she's out dealing with a case, but she ran across a code she can't solve," Ran murmured, sounding puzzled. She scrolled down and continued, "She included it here, but it looks like it's some kind of riddle:

' _When the moon rises at night, what do you see? Is it the work of a poet or a mark of danger?_

 _But when it rises during the day, it looks different. It just hangs there, taunting you with unknown secrets._

 _Like the moon, I have secrets to share. I'll share this with one person, just one._

 _At the place where it all started is where this shall be shared, at the start of the false age."_

Ran finished reading, looking very confused. "I don't have any clue what this means. What about you, Shinichi?"

"Forward it to me," said Shinichi, his mind whirring. Ran did, and Shinichi looked it over carefully. 'Hold on, there's something after the riddle,' he thought, scrolling down. The text said, "Can you figure it out? The keyword is 'Wizard'."

With everything that was going on, and since Sera didn't make a habit of skipping class, Shinichi doubted the riddle was related to a case. If it had been a case, she would've shared it with him directly instead of going through Ran. Plus, he thought he'd heard her use the title 'Wizard' somewhere before, back when he'd first met her.

As he read over the riddle again, the moon metaphor stuck out to him. 'What does the moon have that makes is so mysterious? It has shadows, craters, faces...' With a spark of inspiration, he suddenly realized just what she was saying. 'So that's what she means. She's calling me out.'

The only problem with that was that he didn't really know if he wanted to go. What he _did_ know was that with all the work she'd put in to making the code, he couldn't exactly not go. And, OK, maybe he _did_ like her somewhat, but was it enough to constitute love or anything similar? Or was he just overthinking the whole thing? He rubbed his head in frustration as he tried to figure out just what he was feeling.

"Did you solve the riddle, Shinichi?" Ran whispered suddenly.

"Nope, I don't have a clue," he lied. To alleviate her worry, he added, "But something tells me it's not that serious, so don't worry, OK?"

XXX

Shinichi got in the elevator, hoping that his deduction was right. It _had_ been a riddle, so he could've mixed up the location or the time. It was almost seven at night, so the streets had been fairly crowded. The elevator doors opened at the top floor, so he got out and headed for the stairs to the hotel's roof, taking care to avoid the construction tarps all over the place.

When he opened the door to the roof, he saw Sera standing there, looking off the edge of the roof towards the sunset. The red of the sun cast a reddish glow all over everything.

Seeing she was there, Shinichi breathed a sigh of relief. The place where 'it had all started' was the roof of the hotel annex where he and Sera had first really talked for the first time. The 'start of the false age' had meant his fake age at Conan, seven years old, so that meant she wanted to meet at seven that night. The moon portion meant she wanted to tell him something, but he didn't have any clue as to what it was. He assumed it would be something embarrassing, though, since she'd called him out alone.

"You came," Sera said, noticing him and turning around so the setting sun was behind her. She didn't seem to be at all surprised that he was there as a teenager and not as a kid. With the sun framing her, Shinichi had to admit she actually looked kind of pretty.

"Well, you did call me out here. So, what do you want?"

"I needed to talk to you," said Sera, taking a few steps towards him and stopping in front of him. "Actually, I need a favor. I've spent most of the day getting that piece about me retracted and getting Mouri-tantei to publicly apologize, but the school environment is a lot different. The only way I'm going to convince them is by showing them I have a boyfriend that's our age and not a little kid. So that brings me to my question. Could I ask you to pretend to be a boyfriend? I figure all I really need to do is put a picture of you as my phone's wallpaper to convince people."

Shinichi had had a suspicion about what she'd wanted to talk about, but he was quite surprised by what she was asking. "All you wanted was a picture? You didn't have to call me out here for that. I would've loaned you one."

Sera looked hurt for a moment before saying, "Well, thanks, I guess." She pulled out her phone, turned on the camera, and said, "Now, move out of my shadow so it looks okay."

Shinichi did so, smiling in anticipation of her hitting the button. Instead, she ran up to him, put an arm around his shoulder, leaned in close so their faces were incredibly close, and took a selfie, catching them both in the picture. Shinichi was very surprised by her proximity and he felt his face going red. Luckily the sunset disguised it.

"And that's why I called you out," she said cheerfully, letting go of him and saving the picture. "If you'd just given me a picture, people might have suspected I went into your house and stolen one or something. Now there's no doubt they'll believe it. Unless…" she paused for a moment before looking at him, "…it makes you uncomfortable. I probably should've asked first. You loaning me a picture was an entirely separate situation."

She was right, but Shinichi didn't really mind helping her out, not as much as he might've before. "It's fine, Sera," he told her, smiling. "You look like you need the help."

"All right then!" she exclaimed loudly, becoming cheerful again. "Hopefully that'll clear everything up! I'll show the picture tomorrow at school once the retraction gets published. Thanks again for helping me, Kudo-kun."

"Oh, it's no problem," he said, brushing it off. "You helped me when I was having problems, so I'm just returning the favor."

"You know you didn't have to do that," she replied, putting the phone away. "But let me show you my appreciation, OK? I know a good place to eat not far from here that I think you'll like. It'll be my treat."

"Uh, OK," he said, surprised. "But we'll need to pretend to be on a date in case we run into someone we know. That picture won't mean a thing otherwise."

"Are you serious?" she asked, wide-eyed. Shinichi nodded, so she said, "Huh, I guess you are, huh? Well, I'll lead the way!" Taking him by the hand, she dragged him towards the stairs.

XXX

The restaurant they went to was a cheap okonomiyaki place that Sera frequented in Haido. She knew from experience the food was excellent, and she hoped that Shinichi would agree. Besides that, it wasn't too expensive. "Two of the usual, please!" she told the cook as the two sat down at the counter.

"Of course, Sera-chan!" the cook replied. "But who's your friend? Don't tell me he's your…"

"Do you think so?" Sera cut in. The guy had just stuck out his pinky finger as a 'red string of fate' joke.

"Well, maybe," he said, peering at Shinichi. "But kid, you look familiar. Have we met before?"

"I don't think so," Shinichi replied, looking a bit annoyed.

"He's just a friend of mine from school," Sera explained quickly. "He did me a favor so I thought I'd reward him with some of the best okonomiyaki around!"

"Did you now? Then I'd better get started!" With that he turned his back and started cooking their food.

"Sorry about him," Sera whispered to Shinichi. "He's a good cook, but he gets a bit personal sometimes."

"I noticed," he muttered. Then his face suddenly changed. "How come you shot down the charade just now?"

"Force of habit, I guess," she replied, not looking him in the eye. 'Why is he so worked up about this?' she thought. 'That's the second time he's brought that up. Maybe I'm making him nervous or something.' To him, she said, "I just didn't want to say that and then accidently say it later on and embarrass you."

"How would that embarrass me? I won't be around as myself."

"You know what I mean," she sighed. "We both agree this is a one time thing, and then it's back to business as usual. If I were to say something like that to you when you look like a kid, someone might hear and it would completely defeat the purpose of trying to convince people I'm not into shotacon."

"Then treat Conan and me as two separate people," Shinichi suggested. "That way you can say whatever you want."

'Again, why is he helping me so much?' Sera wondered. 'He's more enthusiastic than I expected. If I didn't know better I'd say he'd actually fallen for me. But that can't be right, can it?'

Sera replied, "Maybe I could do that, but I'd know the truth and it would still be awkward. But if you're OK with it, then," she leaned over and grabbed him by the arm, "I guess I can be a little clingier."

She'd been expecting him to pull away, but he just sat there and said, "If it makes you feel better, then go ahead."

'Maybe Yukiko-san was right and I do have a chance,' Sera thought, letting Shinichi go.

They talked normally for the rest of the evening, eating their food and chatting about current events. Shinichi really enjoyed the food, which made Sera pretty happy. They didn't bring up the whole 'dating' thing once during their conversation. She did feel a bit guilty because if it hadn't been for her basically blackmailing Haibara, the whole evening wouldn't have been possible. She'd gotten a little panicky when that article came out, so she hadn't acted rationally. She planned to apologize to Haibara later, once the uproar had died down.

After about an hour, Sera figured they'd worn out their welcome, so she paid for the food and they headed out. "A normal couple would hug passionately or kiss or something right about now," Sera remarked once they were out on the street. "But since there's no one around to see, that doesn't really matter, does it?"

"You say that, but the people in the shop are staring at us," Shinichi said, glancing at the shop's window. Indeed, the owner and his wife were staring at them from behind the counter.

Seeing he was right, Sera suddenly hugged him tightly, saying, "Thank you for treating me tonight, Shinichi-san. I'll see you later!" Then she let go of him and walked away. 'Like that'll ever happen for real,' she thought sadly.

"See you later, Masumi!" Shinichi called from behind her, making her stop dead in her tracks.

'Did he just…call me by my name?' she thought in astonishment. He'd never done that before. She whirled around to look at him to find he was grinning at her. "Why are you being so personal?" she asked. "It's not like they can actually hear us over the traffic."

"Who knows?" he shrugged. "Maybe it's for the same reason you came to me for you whole boyfriend scheme instead of someone without a shrinking problem. You could've picked pretty much any guy in the school, but you didn't."

Sera just stared at him like she'd seen a ghost. The reason she'd asked him was because she liked him, so was he saying what she thought he was saying? "Are you saying you l…l…like me?" she asked shyly. She didn't normally feel shy, so it was quite the odd feeling. Then she jumped, realizing she'd just blurted out her true feelings with just that one line. What if he was just playing her?

This time it was Shinichi's turn to act surprised. Then he said, "Would you care to take a walk?" Sera, not trusting herself to speak and blushing furiously, simply nodded.

XXX

Shinichi led Sera through Haido until they reached Haido Park, which was fairly empty at that time of night. When they reached a bench, the two of them sat down. Sera was still looking at the ground, mortified, which was a very odd look for her. She never acted bashful like this.

To be honest, Shinichi hadn't been that surprised when she'd blurted out her feelings, since he'd suspected it ever since Ran had put the idea in his head. Now, sitting alone in the park at night, there was really only way to reply to her confession without turning her into an emotional wreck. Since he'd basically tricked her into it, he knew his next words would have to be carefully chosen.

"Sera, is what you said earlier what you meant by the moon in your riddle?" he asked, trying to break the tension. "The faces of the moon was a metaphor to what you were really feeling compared to how acted, right?"

There was silence for a moment before Sera said, "Yes, that's right."

That was when Shinichi, who had been feeling more and more nervous the whole time, said, "Well, I think it's time I told you the truth. The museum trip _was_ a date. I just didn't want to tell you because I didn't know if you felt the same way."

That was it; he had basically said it indirectly. It was the closest he could get to saying the truth without outright saying it, which would've been impossible due to his nervousness. He'd gone on the 'date' liking Sera a bit, but since then his feelings had changed completely. The dinner that evening had finally clued him in to that.

Finally, Sera looked back up at him. "Are you serious? It was so _obvious_ to everyone what exactly it was! That's why I was so confused; you kept acting like it wasn't, but it was clearly a date. The mixed signals were driving me nuts!"

"Sorry," he apologized. "Did I clear up the signals, then?"

"Oh, yes!" she exclaimed, suddenly hugging him tightly. "Do you have any idea how happy I am right now? I thought you were just leading me on, but it turned out you were just messing with me the whole time!"

"I think I've got an idea how happy you are," he replied, smiling. His heart was thumping really quickly, and he was pretty sure she could hear it.

After a minute or so of them embracing, Sera broke it off. "Now, we just have a little bit of housework to take care of," she began. "First, if we're officially going out, we need to control ourselves so we don't blow your cover. So no goo-goo eyes or longing glances or anything, OK?"

"All right."

"The second thing is that we need to act like we're in a long distance relationship. That way there won't be any temptations to break character. So whenever you want to talk about anything non-platonic, just shoot me a text with your other phone, except when we're right next to each other and people are watching us."

Shinichi nodded and said, "I think I can do that."

"And the third thing is that we need to call each other by our names," she finished. "So I'll call you Shinichi and you call me Masumi. You can do that, right?"

"Sure, Masumi," he replied. He was pleased when she started blushing again.

"OK, that sounds weird, but cute at the same time. So, uh, Shinichi, could I ask for one last favor before we go home?"

"What do you need?"

"Just this," she replied calmly. Then she leaned over, grabbed him by the neck, and kissed him. It lasted for about five seconds before she broke it off and stood up. "That was all I needed. See you later, Shinichi!" Then she raced off with her face bright red, leaving him sitting on the bench and staring after her with a look of wonder while his heart pounded like crazy.

* * *

Well, I hope you all enjoyed that! This chapter went through more revisions than almost any of the others apart from the Maya confrontation. Those two are so stubborn they basically had to trick each other into spilling the beans. Of course, that's probably yet another reason this pairing won't ever actually happen canonically apart from the obvious one (Ran).

Next chapter is the epilogue, which is significantly shorter than most other chapters I've done, and will take care of the Sera vs. Haibara blackmail thing along with a few other loose ends. I'll upload it in about two days, so if there are any loose ends you want tied up or any that you think I'll miss, be sure to let me know before then. And thanks for sticking with me until the end! :D


	21. Epilogue

Here's the epilogue I promised you! I don't put word limits on epilogues because I don't like to drag it on longer than I need to. Therefore, this chapter is short. There's a lot of post-story stuff at the bottom, so give it a look over if you'd like. ;)

* * *

Epilogue

It had been three months since the okonomiyaki, which meant a lot things had changed. For one, Shinichi had finally taken out the Organization and come back to himself permanently. Another big change was that Ran and Masato had, with a little pushing, finally starting seeing each other. Maya had been the major factor in getting that off the ground.

The most obvious change, though, was that Shinichi and Sera had secretly begun seeing each other, too. When he was Conan, they acted like friends whenever anybody was around, even when they knew his secret. Now that he was back as himself, they had become much more public about it.

When Sera had shown the picture of her and Shinichi to the students, her reputation had been restored to its normal position, but it had taken a little while before Shinichi's fan club was able to talk to her again. If she'd fake dated any other guy, everyone would've seen through it at once, but with Shinichi not actually being around, there was no way for anybody to contradict her. Ran had helped with restoring her reputation since she, while she'd been _very_ surprised at first, had been a major proponent in making sure people believed her.

Most people had gotten used to them by now, but there were still two quiet but dangerous people who were very disapproving of the two of them: Subaru Okiya and Ai Haibara. Neither was upfront about it, but the two detectives could both sense the disapproval radiating off of them. That was why they had scheduled a meeting with them to put their minds at ease.

At ten in the morning, the bell to Shinichi's house rang. Subaru had moved out and gotten a new apartment when Shinichi had returned, giving him his house back. He'd also quit wearing his disguise and had returned to himself. Hearing the bell, Shinichi opened the front door to find the two of them waiting. "Oh, you made it! Thanks for coming!" he said, standing aside to let them in.

"What's this about, Kudo-kun?" Haibara asked as they walked towards the library.

"Oh, we haven't really talked much for a while, so I thought we'd have a little get together," Shinichi said cheerfully. "I'll go get us some tea while you get settled."

"I'll help out," Akai said quickly. "I know where the stuff is and I don't really trust your tea-making skills."

"Sorry about that," Shinichi grinned. Haibara left while the two guys headed to the kitchen. "So? Are you going to lecture me?" Shinichi asked, getting out the teapot and filling it.

"What for? You haven't done anything wrong."

"You've been glaring at me since you got here," Shinichi pointed out.

"Have I?" Akai asked absentmindedly, getting out the teabags and turning on the stove.

Now Shinichi was on edge. The calmness of this guy was scaring him more than him shouting ever could. "Uh, yeah, you have," Shinichi replied warily.

Akai stared at him for another ten seconds before relaxing his posture. "Well then, I apologize. I trust you won't do anything stupid that will make us have to have words, right?"

"Oh, of course!" he replied, catching his true meaning. "Do you think they'd notice if we used instant tea?"

"We're guys; they're going to expect it," Akai pointed out.

"True enough," said Shinichi, and they both smirked.

XXX

Sera was busy reading a book when Haibara walked in to the library by herself. She'd been sitting on the floor with her back to the desk since it was unexpectedly more comfortable than sitting in the chair.

Haibara didn't say a word, preferring to stand by the door and wait quietly. Well, she was actually staring at Sera, but she herself probably didn't even realize it. After about two minutes of this, Sera asked, "Where are the guys at?"

"Making tea," Haibara replied coolly.

Seeing she wasn't going to volunteer any more information, Sera closed her book and stood up, stretching as she did so. "Well, better them than me, I guess." She looked at Haibara, but the girl just stared back at her. "Haibara-san, you still hate me, don't you?" she asked quietly.

"There's a big difference between distrust and hate," Haibara said firmly. "So no, I don't hate you."

"That's not what your face says," said Sera. Haibara's expression changed at once. She quit staring and took on an impassive look. "Haibara-san," she said softly, approaching her and dropping to her knees so they were closer to eye level, "Haibara-san, I never meant to steal him from you. I was just as surprised as everyone else when he started paying more attention to me. I thought he thought of me as a close friend."

Haibara looked away and said, "You can't steal what someone doesn't have."

"Maybe not, but you can snag a victory from under someone's nose, and that's basically what I ended up doing. So I'm sorry about it."

"Ran-san is the one you should be apologizing to," Haibara replied, staring at her with a look that could melt glass. "She never would've realized she doubted Kudo-kun if those stupid rumors hadn't started swirling around."

"I already did," Sera confessed. "She gave us our blessing, and she didn't seem too upset by it at all. So now I just feel doubly guilty. All of you knew him longer and I just came in and messed up your whole dynamic."

"Life-changing events happen all the time," Haibara told her. "They may be unexpected, but what _can_ be expected is that the future rarely turns out how you want."

"Also, I wanted to apologize for making you give him that pill. I wasn't thinking rationally at the time, so I did some things I'm not too proud of."

"No kidding," she replied coolly. "And I found out after that Kudo-kun already knew I was there, so your threat was invalid. Of course, the fool never did realize _why_ …" She stopped dead in her sentence, catching herself before she blurted anything out.

So, do you forgive me?" Sera asked hesitantly.

"Like I said, you shouldn't be apologizing for things you don't need to," Haibara replied, her tone becoming a little lighter. "You're a strong girl, so why are you apologizing anyways?"

Sera breathed an internal sigh of relief. 'Good, she forgives me,' she thought. She'd been getting more and more worried about Haibara ever since she'd forced her to give Shinichi that temporary antidote. She knew the girl could be dangerous if she really wanted, but now she knew Haibara was more interested in keeping a close eye on them rather than getting revenge.

The guys entered with the tea just then, putting their conversation on hold. "Oh, the tea's here!" Sera exclaimed, getting to her feet and getting two cups from the tray Shinichi was holding. She gave one to Haibara, who was too short to reach it normally.

Shinichi put the tray on the desk and he and Akai both got their cups. "So, how's everybody doing?" he asked, kicking off the conversation.

END

* * *

So let me just say that this project was one of the most labor-intensive stories I've ever written. I've hinted at it through all the talk about the word count, but it's still absolutely INSANE I actually managed twenty chapters with over 2,000 words for most of them. It was also pretty difficult in getting the events to flow the way I wanted while still (mostly) keeping everybody in character. I could've just cheaped out with the ShinichiXSera dynamic by making Conan instantly forget Ran for some stupid reason like a bunch of non-ShinRan fics do, but that would've left a bad taste in my mouth.

...and I'm rambling. That's probably the reason I don't make YouTube videos. :P

To finish off, I sincerely hope that everybody that made it to the end and is reading this sincerely enjoyed the story. If anybody has any questions, comments, or concerns, then feel free to review or to drop me a PM to tell me your thoughts! And special thanks to user 15bubbles for being both helpful and honest in your reviews. Your input helped shape a lot of the latter half of the story!

Before I sign off this time, I have two final notes. First, I've decided on my next fanfiction story: Minami Edogawa Part Four! I've only done preliminary work so far, but it'll feature Kaitou Kid and a female Conan interacting, so cue the shippers. Though I doubt much of anything will happen since I'm a guy and not much of a KaiShin shipper, I've tentatively titled it _First Crush_ , so that should give you a clue as to what might transpire. When I first announced I was writing more stories, I got a request almost immediately for the fourth part, so that's why I'm doing this now. Please look forward to it! :)

Last thing: I updated my profile with information about my original stuff I've been writing. It's at the very bottom of it, so it's easy to find. Be sure to check it out if you have the time!

~CoolKid94


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